
■v ^J "t^ "^ 

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THE CHIME AGAINST KANSAS. 
THE APOLOGIES FOR THE CRIME, 
THE TRUE REMEDY. 

SPEECH 



OF 



HON. CHARLES SUMNER, 



IN THE 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 



19th and 20th May, 1856. 



BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT & COMPANY. 

CLEYELAND, OHIO: 
. JEWETT, PROCTOR & WORTHINGTON. 
NEW YOKE: SHELDON, BLAEEMAN & CO. 
1856. 



/. 



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THE CRIME AGAIKST KANSAS. 
THE APOLOaiES FOK THE CRIME. 
THE TRUE REMEDY. 

SPEECH 



OF 



HON. CHARLES SUMNEE, 



IN T H S 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 



19th and 20th May, 1856. 



BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT & COMPANY. 

CLEVELAND, OHIO: 

JEWETT, PROCTOR, & WORTHINGTON. 

NEW YORK : SHELDON, BLAKEMAN & CO 

1856. 






In the Senate, 13th March, 1856, Mr, Douglas, from the Committee on 
Territories, presented and read a very long Report on affairs in Kansas. Mr. 
CoLLAMER also presented and read a Minority Report. As soon as the reading 
was completed, Mr. Sumner took the floor, and made the following remarks : 

]Mr. Somner. In those two reports, the whole subject is presented character- 
istically on both sides. In the report of the majority, the true issue is smoth- 
ered ; in that of the minority, the true issue stands forth as a pillar of fire to 
guide the country. The first report proceeds from four senators ; but against 
it I put, fearlessly, the report signed by a single senator [Mr. Collamer], to 
whom I offer my thanks for this service. Let the two go abroad together. 
Error is harmless, while reason is left free to combat it. 

I have no desire to precipitate the debate on this important question, under 
which the country already shakes from side to side, and which threatens to 
scatter from its folds civil war. Nor, indeed, am I disposed to enter upon it 
until I have had the opportunity of seeing, in print, the elaborate documents 
which have been read to us to-day. But I cannot allow the subject to pass 
away, even for this hour, without repelling, at once, distinctly and unequivo- 
cally, the assault which has been made upon the Emigrant Aid Company of 
Massachusetts. That company has done nothing for which it can be con-» 
demned under the laws and constitution of the land. These it has not offendeq 
in letter or spirit ; not in the slightest letter, or in the remotest spirit. It is 
true, it has sent men to Kansas ; and had it not a right to send them ? It is 
true, I trust, that its agents love Freedom, and hate Slavery ; and have they 
not a riglit to do so? Their offence has this extent, and nothing more. Sir,] 
to the whole arraignment of that Company, in the report of the Committee on 
Territories, I now for them plead "Not Guilty ! " and confidently appeal to 
the country for that honorable acquittal which is due to their patriot services. 

The outrages in Kansas are vindicated, or extenuated, by the alleged mis- 
conduct of the Emigrant Aid Company. Very well, sir ; a bad cause is natu- 
rally staked on untenable ground. You cannot show the misconduct. Any 
such allegation will fail. And you now begin your game with loaded dice. ' 

Afterwards, 19th March, Mr. Douglas introduced " A Bill to authorize the 
people of the Territory of Kansas to form a Constitution and State Govern- 
nent, and to provide for their admission into the Union, when they have the 
requisite population." '. Subsequently, Mr, Seward moved, by way of substi- 
tute, another Bill, pro>riciing for immediate action, and entitled " A Bill for 
the admission of the State of Kansas into the Union." Debate ensued, and 
was continued, by adjournment, from time to time. In the course of this 
debate, on the 19th and 20th of May, Mr. Sumner made the following 

Coruell Uu»>. 
2 Fob 05 






SPEECH. 



Mr. President : 

Ycu are now called to redress a great transgression. Seldom 
in the history of nations has such a question been presented. 
Tariflfs, army bills, navy bills, land bills, are important, and 
justly occupy your care ; but these all belong to the course of 
ordinary legislation. As meanr and instruments only, they are 
necessarily subordinate to the conservation of government itself. 
Grant them or deny them, in greater or less degree, and you 
will inflict no shock. The machinery of government will con- 
tinue to move. The State will not cease to exist. Far other- 
wise is it with the emment question now before you, involving, 
as it does, liberty in a broad Territory, and also involving the 
peace of the whole country, with our good name in history for- 
evermore. 

Take down your map, sir, and you will find that the Terri- 
tory of Kansas, more than any other region, occupies the middle 
spot of North America, equally distant from the Atlantic on 
the east, and the Pacific on the west ; from the frozen waters of 
Hudson's Bay on the north, and the tepid Gulf Stream on the 
south, constituting the precise territorial centre of the whole vast 
continent. To such advantages of situation, on the very high- 
way between two oceans, are added a soil of unsurpassed rich- 
ness, and a fascinating, undulating beauty of surface, with a 
health-giving climate, calculated to nurture a powerful and gene- 



4 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

reus people, Trorthj to be a central pivot of American institutions. 
A few short months only have passed since this spacious med- 
iterranean country was opened only to the savage, who ran wild 
in its woods and prairies ; and now it has already drawn to its 
bosom a population of freemen larger than Athens croAvded 
within her historic gates, when her sons^ under Miltiades, won 
liberty for mankind on the field of Marathon ; more than Sparta 
contained, when she ruled Greece, and sent forth her devoted chil- 
dren, quickened by a mother's benediction, to return with their 
shields or on them ; more than Kome gathered on her seven 
hills, when, under her kings, she commenced that sovereign 
sway, which afterwards embraced the whole earth ; more than 
London held, when, on the fields of Crecy and Agincourt, the 
English banner was carried victoriously over the chivalrous hosts 
of France. 

Against this territory, thus fortunate in position and popula- 
tion, a Crime has been committed which is without example in 
1 the records of the past. Not in plundered provinces, or in the 
cruelties of selfish governors, will you find its parallel ; and yet 
there is an ancient instance, which may show, at least, the path 
of justice. In the terrible impeachment by which the great 
Roman orator has blasted, through all time, the name of Ver- 
res, amidst charges of robbery and sacrilege, the enormity 
which most aroused the indignant voice of his accuser, and 
which still stands forth with strongest distinctness, arresting 
the sympathetic indignation of all who read the story, is, 
that, away in Sicily, he had scourged a citizen of Rome — that 
the cry " I am a Roman citizen " had been interposed in vain 
against the lash of the tyrant governor. Other charges were, 
that he had carried away productions of art, and that he had 
violated the sacred shrines. It was in the presence of the 
Roman Senate that this arraignment proceeded ; in a temple of 
the Forum ; amidst crowds, such as no orator had ever before 
drawn together, thronging the porticos and colonnades, even 
clinging to the house-tops and neighboring slopes, and under 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 5 

the anxious gaze of witnesses summoned from the scene of crime. 
But an audience grander far, of higher dignity, of more 
various people and of wider intelligence, — the countless mul- 
titude of succeeding generations, in every land where eloquence 
has been studied, or where the Roman name has been recognized, 
— has listened to the accusation, and throbbed with condemna- 
tion of the criminal. Sir, speaking in an age of light and in a 
land of constitutional liberty, where the safeguards of elections 
are justly placed among the highest triumphs of civilization, I 
fearlessly assert that the wrongs of much-abused Sicily, thus 
memorable* in history, were small by the side of the wrongs of 
Kansas, where the very shrines of *popular institutions, more 
sacred than any heathen altar, have been desecrated f where 
the ballot-box, more precious than any Avork in ivory or marble, 
from the cunning hand of art, has been plundered ; and where 
the cry "I am an American citizen " has been interposed in 
vain against outrage of every kind, even upon life itself. Are 
you against sacrilege ? — I present it for your execration. Are 
you against robbery ? — I hold it up for your scorn. Are you 
for the protection of American citizens ? — I show you how their 
dearest rights have been cloven down, while a tyrannical usurpa- 
tion has sought to install itself on their very necks ! 

But the wickedness which I now begin to expose is immeasur- 
ably aggravated by the motive which prompted it. Not in any 
common lust for power did this uncommon tragedy have its 
origin. It is the rape of a virgin Territory, compelling it to 
the hateful embrace of Slavery ; and it may be clearly traced 
to a depraved longing for a new slave State, the hideous oft- 
spring of such a crime, in the hope of adding to the power of 
Slavery in the National Government. Yes, sir, when the whole 
world, alike Christian and Turk, is rising up to condemn this 
wrong, and to make it a hissing to the nations, here in our 
Bepublic, force — ay, sir, FORCE — has been openly em- 
ployed in compelling Kansas to this pollution, and all for the 
sake of political power. There is the simple fact, which you 
1* 



6 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

will vainlj attempt to deny, but which in itself presents an 
essential wickedness that makes other public crimes seem like 
public virtues. 

But this enormity, vast beyond comparison, swells to dimen- 
sions of wickedness which the imagination toils in vain to grasp, 
when it is understood that for this purpose are hazarded the 
horrors of intestine feud, not only in this distant Territory, but 
everywhere tliroughout the country. Already the muster has 
begun. The strife is no longer local, but national. Even now, 
while I speak, portents hang on all the arches of the horizon, 
threatening to darken the broad land, which already yawns with 
the mutterings of civil war. The fury of the propagandists of 
Slavery, and the calm determination of their opponents, are 
now diffused from the distant Territory over wide-spread com- 
munities, and the whole country, in all its extent — marshal- 
ling hostile divisions, and foreshadowing a strife, which, unless 
happily averted by the triumph of Freedom, will become war — 
fratricidal, parricidal war — with an accumulated wickedness 
beyond the wickedness of any war in human annals ; justly 
provoking the avenging judgment of Providence and the aveng- 
ing pen of history, and constituting a strife, in the language of 
the ancient writer, more ihan forei^ti, more than social, more 
than civil; but something compounded of all these strifes, and 
in itself more than war — sed potius commune quoddam ex 
omnibus, et 'phisquam, helium. 

Such is the Crime which you are to judge. But the crimi- 
nal also must be dragged into day, that you may see and 
measure the power by which all this wrong is sustained. From 
no common source could it proceed. In its perpetration was 
needed a spirit of vaulting ambition which would hesitate at 
notliing ; a hardihood of purpose which was insensible to the 
judgment of mankind ; a madness for Slavery, which should 
disregard the constitution, the laws, and all the great examples 
of our history ; also a consciousness of power such as comes 
from the h-ibit of power ; a combination of energies found only 



SPEECH OF HON. CHAELES SUMNER. 7 

in a hundred arms directed by a hundred eyes ; a control of 
Public Opinion, through venal pens and a prostituted press ; an 
ability to subsidize crowds in every vocation of life — the poli- 
tician with his local importance, the lawyer with his subtle 
tongue, and even the authority of the judge on the bench ; and 
a familiar use of men in places high and low, so that none, from 
the President to the lowest border postmaster, should decline to 
be its tool ; — all these things and more were needed ; and they 
were found in the Slave Power of our Republic. There, sir, 
stands the criminal — all unmasked before you — heartless, 
grasping, and tyrannical — with an audacity beyond that of 
Verres, a subtlety beyond that of Machiavel, a meanness beyond 
that of Bacon, and an ability beyond that of Hastings. Justice 
to Kansas can be secured only by the prostration of this influ- 
ence ; for this is the Power behind — greater than any Presi- 
dent — which succors and sustains the Crime. Nay, the 
proceedings I now arraign derive their fearful consequence only 
from this connection. 

In now opening this great matter, I am not insensible to the 
austere demands of the occasion ; but the dependence of the 
crime against Kansas upon the Slave Power is so peculiar and 
important, that I trust to be pardoned while I impress it by an 
illustration, which to some may seem trivial. It is related in 
Northern mythology, that the god of Force, visiting an en- 
chanted region, was challenged by his royal entertainer to what 
seemed a humble feat of strength — merely, sir, to lift a cat 
from the ground. The god smiled at the challenge, and, calmly 
placing his hand under the belly of the animal, with superhu- 
man strength, strove, while the back of the feline monster 
arched far upwards, even beyond reach, and one paw actually 
forsook the earth, until at last the discomfited divinity desisted ; 
but he was little surprised at his defeat, when he learned that 
this creature, which seemed to be a cat, and nothing more, was 
not merely a cat, but that it belonged to and was a part of the 
great Terrestrial Serpent, which, in its innumerable foldft, 



8 SPEECE OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

encircled the whole globe. Even so the creature, 'whose paws 
are now fastened upon Kansas, whatever it may seem to be, 
constitutes in reality a part of the Slave Power, which, with 
loathsome folds, is now coiled about the whole land. Thus do I 
expose the extent of the present contest, where we encounter not 
merely local resistance, but also the unconquered sustaining 
arm behind. But out of the vastness of the Crime attempted, 
with all its woe and shame, I derive a w^ell-founded assurance 
of a commensurate vastness of effort against it, by the aroused 
masses of the country, determined not only to vindicate Eight 
against Wrong, but to redeem the Republic from the thraldom 
of that Oligarchy, which prompts, directs, and concentrates, the 
distant wrong. 

Such is the Crime, and such the criminal, which it is my 
duty in this debate to expose ; and, by the blessing of God, this 
duty shall be done completely to the end. But this will not be 
enough. The Apologies, which, with strange hardihood, have 
been offered for the Crime, must be torn away, so that it 
shall stand forth, without a single raor, or fiizi-leaf. to cover its 
vileness. And, finally, the True Remedy must be shown. The 
subject is complex in its relations, as it is transcendent in im- 
portance ; and yet, if I am honored by your attention, I hope to 
exhibit it clearly in all its parts, while I conduct you to the 
inevitable conclusion that Kansas must be admitted at once, 
with her present constitution, as a State of this Union, and 
give a new star to the blue field of our national flag. And 
here I derive satisfaction from the thought, that the cause is 
so strong in itself as to bear even the infirmities of its advocates ; 
nor can it require anything beyond that simplicity of treatment 
and moderation of manner which I desire to cultivate. Its true 
character is such, that, like Hercules, it will conquer just so 
soon as it is recognized. 

My task will be divided under three different heads : first ^ 
THE Crime against Kansas, in its origin and extent; secondly^ 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 9 

THE Apologies for the Crime ; and, thirdly^ the True 
Remedy. 

But. before entering upon the argument, I must say seme- 
thing of a general character, particularly in response to what 
has fallen from senators who have raised themselves to eminence 
on this floor in championship of human wrongs ; I mean the 
senator from South Carolina [Mr. Butler], and the senator 
from Illinois [Mr. DoUGLAs], who, though unlike as Don Quix- 
ote and Sancho Panza, yet, like this couple, sally forth together 
in the same adventure. I regret much to miss the elder senator 
from his seat ; but the cause against which he has run a tilt 
with such activity of animosity demands that the opportunity 
of exposing him should not be lost ; and it is for the cause that 
I speak. The senator from South Carolina has read many 
books of chivalry, and believes himself a chivalrous knight, 
with sentiments of honor and courage. Of course he has chosen 
a mistress to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly 
to others, is always lovely to him ; though polluted in the sight 
of the world, is chaste in his sight ; — I mean the harlot 
Slavery. For her his tongue is always profuse with words. 
Let her be impeached in character, or any proposition made to 
shut her out from the extension of her wantonness, and no 
extravagance of manner or hardihood of assertion is then too 
great for this senator. The frenzy of Don Quixote in behalf 
of his wench Dulcinea del Toboso is all surpassed. The asserted 
rights of Slavery^ which shock equality of all kinds, are cloaked 
by a fantastic claim of equality. If the slave States cannot 
enjoy what, in mockery of the great fathers of the Republic, 
he misnames equality under the constitution, — in other words, 
the full power in the National Territories to compel fellow-men 
to unpaid toil, to separate husband and wife, and to sell little 
children at the auction-block, — then, sir, the chivaliic senator 
will conduct the State of South Carolina out of the Union ! 



10 ' SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

Heroic knight ! Exalted senator ! A second Moses come for 
a second exodus ! 

But, not content with this poor menace, which we have been 
twice told was "measured," the senator, in the unrestrained 
chivalry of his nature, has undertaken to apply opprobrious 
words to those who differ from him on this floor. He calls them 
" sectional and fanatical; " and opposition to the usurpation in 
Kansas he denounces as " uncalculating fanaticism." To be 
sure, these charges lack all grace of originality, and all senti- 
ment of truth ; but the adventurous senator does not hesitate. 
He is the uncompromising, unblushing representative on this 
floor of a flagrant sectmiallsm^ which now domineers over the 
Republic ; and yet, with a ludicrous ignorance of his own posi- 
tion, — unable to see himself as others see him, — or with an 
effrontery which even his white head ought not to protect from 
rebuke, he applies to those here who resist his sectloTiallsin the 
very epithet which designates himself The men who strive to 
bring back the government to its original policy, when Freedom 
and not Slavery was national, while Slavery and not Freedom 
was sectional, he arraigns as sectional. This will not do. It 
involves too gre£t a perversion of terms. I tell that senator 
that it is to himself, and to the " organization" of which he is 
the "committed advocate," that this epithet belongs. I now 
fasten it upon them. For myself, I care little for names ; but, 
since the question has been raised here, I affirm that the Repub- 
lican party of the Union is in no just sense sectional^ but, more 
than any other party, national ; and that it now goes forth to 
dislodge from the high places of the government the tyrannical 
sectionalism of which the senator from South Carolina is one 
of the maddest zealots. 

Tc the charge of fanaticism I also reply. Sir, fanaticism is 
found in an enthusiasm or exaggeration of opinions, particularly 
on religious subjects ; but there may be a fanaticism for evil as 
well as for good. Now, I will not deny that there are persons 
among us loving Liberty too well for their personal good, in a 



SPEECH or HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 11 

selfish generation. Such there may be, and, for the sake of 
their example, would that there were more ! In calling them 
"fanatics," you cast contumely upon the noble army of mar- 
tyrs, from the earliest day down to this hour ; upon the great 
tribunes of human rights, by whom life, liberty, and happiness 
on earth, have been secured ; upon the long line of devoted 
patriots, who, throughout history, have truly loved their coun- 
try; and upon all, who, in noble aspirations for the general 
good, and in fdrgetfulness of self, have stood out before their 
age, and gathered into their generous bosoms the shafts of 
tyranny and wTong, in order to make a pathway for truth. 
You discredit Luther, when alone he nailed his articles to the 
door of the church at Wittenberg, and then, to the imperial 
demand that he should retract, firmly replied, "Here I stand; 
I cannot do otherwise, so help me God ! " You discredit Hamp- 
den, when alone he refused to pay the few shillings of ship- 
money, and shook the throne of Charles I. ; you discredit MiltoUj 
when, amidst the corruptions of a heartless court, he lived on, 
the lofty friend of Liberty, above question or suspicion ; you 
discredit Russell and Sidney, when, for the sake of their coun- 
try, they calmly turned from family and friends, to tread the 
narrow steps of the scafibld ; you discredit those early founders 
of American institutions, who preferred the hardships of a 
wilderness, surrounded by a savage foe, to injustice on beds of 
ease ; you discredit our later fathers, who, few in numbers, and 
w^eak in resources, yet strong in their cause, did not hesitate to 
brave the mighty power of England, already encircling the 
globe with her morning drum-beats. Yes, sir, of such are the 
fanatics of history, according to the senator. But I tell that 
senator that there are characters badly eminent, of whose fanati- 
cism there can be no question. Such were the ancient Egyp- 
tians, Avho worshipped divinities in brutish forms ; the Druids, 
who darkened the forests of oak in which they lived by sacri- 
fices of blood ; the Mexicans, who surrendered countless victims 
to the propitiation of their obscene idols ; the Spaniards, who, 



12 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

under Alva, sought to force the Inquisition upon Holland, bj a 
tyranny kindred to that now employed to force Slavery upon 
Kansas ; and such were the Algerines, when, in solemn con- 
clave, after listening to a speech not unlike that of the senator 
from South Carolina, they resolved to continue the slavery of 
white Christians, and to extend it to the countrymen of Wash- 
ington ! Ay, sir, extend it ! And in this same dreary cata- 
logue faithful history must record all who now, in an enlight- 
ened age, and in a land of boasted freedom, stand up, in 
perversion of the constitution, and in denial of immortal truth, to 
fasten a new shackle upon their fellow-man. If the senator 
wishes to see fanatics, let him look round among his own associ- 
ates ; let him look at himself 

But I have not done with the senator. There is another 
matter, regarded by him of such consequence, that he interpo- 
lated it into the speech of the senator from New Hampshire 
[Mr. Hale], and also announced that he had prepared himself 
with it, to take in his pocket all the way to Boston, when he 
expected to address the people of that community. On this 
account, and for the sake of truth, I stop for one moment, and 
tread it to the earth. The North, according to the senator, 
was engaged in the slave-trade, and helped to introduce slaves 
into the Southern States ; and this undeniable fact he proposed 
to establish by statistics, in stating which, his errors surpassed 
his sentences in number. But I let these pass for the present, 
that I may deal with his argument. Pray, sir, is the acknowl- 
edged turpitude of a departed generation to become an example 
for us ? And yet the suggestion of the senator, if entitled to 
any consideration in this discussion, must have this extent. I 
join my friend from New Hampshire in thanking the senator 
from South Carolina for adducing: this instance : for it sives me 
an opportunity to say that the northern merchants, with homes 
in Boston, Bristol, Newport, New York, and Philadelphia, who 
catered for Slavery during the years of the slave-trade, are 
the lineal progenitors of the northern men, with homes in these 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 13 

« 

places, who lend themselves to Slavery in our day ; and espe- 
cially that all, whether north or south, who take part, directly 
or indirectly, in the conspiracy against Kansas, do but continue 
the work of the slave-traders, which you condemn. It is true — 
too true, alas ! — that our fathers were engaged in this traffic ; 
but that is no apology for it. And, in repelling the authority 
of this example, I repel alse the trite argument founded on the 
earlier example of England. It is true that our mother 
country, at the peace of Utrecht, extorted from Spain the Assi- 
ento Contract, securing the monopoly of the slave-trade with 
the Spanish Colonies, as the whole price of all the blood of 
great victories; that she higgled at Aix-la-Chapelle for another 
lease of this exclusive traffic ; and again, at the treaty of Mad- 
rid, clung to the wretched piracy. It is true that in this spirit 
the power of the mother country was prostituted to the same 
base ends in her American Colonies, against indignant protests 
from our fathers. All these things now rise up in judgment 
ao-ainst her. Let us not follow the senator from South Caro- 

O 

lina to do the very evil to-day w^hich in another generation w^e 
condemn. 

As the senator from South Carolina is the Don Quixote, the 
senator from Illinois [Mr. Douglas] is the squire of Slavery, 
its very Sancho Panza, ready to do all its humiliating offices. 
This senator, in his labored address, vindicating his labored 
report — piling one mass of elaborate error upon another mass 
— constrained himself, as you will remember, to unfamiliar 
decencies of speech. Of that address I have nothing to say at 
this moment, though before I sit down I shall show something 
of its fallacies. But I go back now to an earlier occasion, when, 
true to his native impulses, he threw into this discussion, "for 
a charm of powerful trouble," personalities most discreditable 
to this body. I will not stop to repel the imputations which he 
cast upon myself; but I mention them to remind you of the 
"sweltered venom, sleeping got," which, with other poisoned 
ingredients, he cast into the cauldron of this debate. Of other 
2 



14 SPEECH OF HOX. CHARLES SUMNER. 

things I speak. Standing on this floor, the senator issued hid 
rescript, requiring submission to the usurped power of Kansas ; 
and this was accompanied by a manner — all his own — such 
as befits the tyrannical threat. Very well. Let the senator 
try. I tell him now that he cannot enforce any such submis- 
sion. The senator, with the slave power at his back, is strong, 
but he is not strong enough for this purpose. He is bold. He 
shrinks from nothing. Like Danton, he may cry, " Vcmdace ! 
Vaudacel toiijoiirs Vaudacel^^ but even his audacity cannot 
compass this work. The senator copies the British officer, who, 
with boastful swagger, said that with the hilt of his sword he 
would cram the " stamps" down the throats of the American 
people ; and he will meet a similar failure. He may convulse 
this country with civil feud. Like the ancient madman, he mny 
set fire to this temple of Constitutional Liberty, grander than 
Ephesian dome ; but he cannot enforce obedience to that tyran- 
nical usurpation. 

The senator dreams that he can subdue the North. He dis- 
claims the open threat, but his conduct still implies it. How 
little that senator knows himself, or the strength of the cause 
which he persecutes ! He is but a mortal man ; against him 
is an immortal principle. With finite power he wrestles with 
the infinite, and he must fall. Against him are stronger bat- 
talions than any marshalled by mortal arm — the inborn, ine- 
radicable, invincible sentiments of the human heart ; against 
him is nature in all her subtle forces ; against him is God. Let 
him try to subdue these. 

But I pass from these things, which, though belonging to the 
very heart of the discussion, are yet preliminary in character, 
and press at once to the main question. 

I. It belongs to me now, in the first place, to expose the 
Crime against Kansas, in its origin and extent. Logically, 
this is the beginning of the argument. I say Crime, and de 



SPEECH OF HON. CHAELE3 SUMNER. 15 

liberately adopt this strongest term, as better than any other 
denoting the consummate transgression. I would go further, 
if lancruaore could further d-q. It is the Crime of Crimes — 
surpassing far the old crimen majestatis^ pursued with ven- 
geance bjr the laws of Rome, and containing all other crimes, 
as the greater contains the less. I do not go too far, when I 
call it the Crime against Nature, from which the soul recoils, 
and which language refuses to describe. To laj bare this enor- 
mity, I now proceed. The whole subject has already become a 
twice-told tale, and its renewed recital will be a renewal of its 
sorrow and shame ; but I shall not hesitate to enter upon it. 
The occasion requires it from the beginning. 

It has been well remarked by a distinguished historian of our 
country, that at the Ithuriel touch of the Missouri discussion, 
the slave interest, hitherto hardly recognized as a distinct ele- 
ment in our system, started up portentous and dilated, with 
threats and assumptions, which are the origin of our existing 
national politics. This was in 1820. The discussion ended 
with the admission of Missouri as a slaveholding State, and the 
prohibition of Slavery in all the remaining territory west of the 
Mississippi, and north of 36° 30', leaving the condition of oth- 
er territory, south of this line, or subsequently acquired, un- 
touched by the arrangement. Here was a solemn act of legis- 
lation, called at the time a compromise, a covenant, a compact, 
first brought forward in this body by a slaveholder, vindicated 
by slaveholders in debate, finally sanctioned by slaveholding 
votes, also uplield at the time by the essential approbation of 
a slaveholding President, James Monroe, and his Cabinet, of 
whom a majority were slaveholders, including Mr. Calhoun 
himself; and this compromise was made the condition of the 
.admission of Missouri, without which that State could not have 
beefi received into the Union. The bargain was simple, and 
was applicable, of course, only to the territory named. Leav- 
ing all other territory to await the judgment of another gener- 
ation, the South said to the JSTorth, Conquer your prejudices so 



16 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

far as to admit Missouri as a slave State, and, in consideration 
of this much-coveted boon, Slavery shall be prohibited forever 
in all the remaining Louisiana Territory above 36° 30' ; and 
the North yielded. 

In total disregard of history, the President, in his annual 
message, has told us that this compromise "was reluctantly 
acquiesced in by the Southern States." Just the contrary is 
true. It was the work of slaveholders, and was crowded by 
their concurring votes upon a reluctant North. At the time it 
was hailed by slaveholders as a victory. Charles Pinckney, of 
South Carolina, in an oft-quoted letter, written at three o'clock 
on the night of its passage, says, " It is considered here by the 
slaveholding States as a great triumph." At the North it was 
accepted as a defeat, and the friends of Freedom everywhere 
throughout the country bowed their heads with mortification. 
But little did they know the completeness of their disaster. 
Little did" they dream that the prohibition of Slavery in the 
Territory, which was stipulated as the price of their fatal 
capitulation, would also at the very moment of its maturity be 
wrested from them. 

Time passed, and it became necessary to provide for this Ter- 
ritory an organized government. Suddenly, without notice in 
the public press, or the prayer of a single petition, or one 
word of open recommendation from the President, — after an 
acquiescence of thirty-three years, and the irreclaimable posses- 
sion by the South of its special share under this compromise, — 
in violation of every obligation of honor, compact, and good 
neighborhood, — and in contemptuous disregard of the out-gush- 
ing sentiments of an aroused North, this time-honored prohibi- 
tion, in itself a Landmark of Freedom, was overturned, and 
the vast region now known as Kansas and Nebraska was opened 
to Slavery. It was natural that a measure thus repugnant 
in character should be pressed by arguments mutually repug- 
nant. It was urged on two principal reasons, so opposite and 
inconsistent as to slap each other in the face : one being that, 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 17 

by the repeal of the prohibition, the Territory would be left 
open to the entry of slaveholders with their slaves, without hin- 
drance ; and the other being that the people would be left abso- 
lutely free to determine the question for themselves, and to pro- 
hibit the entry of slaveholders with their slaves, if they should 
think best. With some, the apology was the alleged rights of 
slaveholders; with others, it was the alleged rights of the 
people. With some, it was openly the extension of Slavery ; 
and with others, it was openly the establishment of Freedom, 
under the guise of Popular Sovereignty. Of course, the measure, 
thus upheld in defiance of reason, was carried through Congress 
in defiance of all the securities of legislation ; and I mention 
these things that you may see in what foulness the present 
Crime was engendered. 

It was carried, firsts by loliqyping in to its support, through 
Executive influence and patronage, men who acted against their 
own declared judgment, and the known will of their constituents. 
Secondly^ hj foistuifj out of place ^ both in the Senate aiid 
House of Representatives, important business, long pending, and 
usurping its room. Thirdly^ by trampling under foot the 
rules of the House of Representatives, always before the safe- 
guard of the minority. And fourthly^ by driving it to a 
close during the very session in which it originated, so that it 
might not be arrested by the indignant voice of the people. 
Such are some of the means by which this snap judgment was 
obtained. If the clear will of the people had not been disre- 
garded, it could not have passed. If the Government had not 
nefariously interposed its influence, it could not have passed. 
If it had been left to its natural place in the order of business, 
it could not have passed. If the rules of the House and the 
rights of the minority had not been violated, it could not have 
passed. If it had been allowed to go over to another Con- 
gress, when the people might be heard, it would have been 
ended ; and then the Crime we now deplore would have been 
without its first seminal life. 
2* 



18 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

Mr. President, I mean to keep absolutely within the limits 
of parliamentary propriety. I mike no personal imputations ; 
but only with frankness, such as belongs to the occasion and 
my own character, describe a great historical act, which is now 
enrolled in the Capitol. Sir, the Nebraska Bill was in every 
respect a swindle. It was a swindle by the South of the 
North. It was, on the part of those who had already com- 
pletely enjoyed their share of the Missouri Compromise, a swin- 
dle of those whose share was yet absolutely untouched ; and the 
phmof unconstitutionality set up — like the plea of usury after 
the borrowed money has been enjoyed — did not make it less 
a swindle. Urged as a Bill of Peace, it was a swindle of the 
whole country. Urged as opening the doors to slave-masters 
with their slaves, it was a swindle of the asserted doctrine of 
Popular Sovereignty. Urged as sanctioning Popular Sover- 
eignty, it was a swindle of the asserted rights of slave-masters. 
It was a swindle of a broad territory, thus cheated of protec- 
tion against Slavery. It was a swindle of a great cause, early 
espoused by Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson, surrounded 
by the best fathers of the Republic. Sir, it was a swindle of 
God-given inalienable rights. Turn it over, look at it on all 
sides, and it is everywhere a swindle ; and, if the word I now 
employ has not the authority of classical usage, it has, on this 
occasion, the indubitable authority of fitness. No other word 
will adequately express the mingled meanness and wickedness 
of the cheat. 

Its character was still further apparent in the general struc- 
ture of the bill. Amidst overflowing professions of regard for 
tlie sovereignty of the people in the Territory, they were de- 
spoiled of every essential privilege of sovereignty. They were 
not allowed to choose their Governor, Secretary, Chief Justice, 
Associate Justices, Attorney, or Marshal — all of whom are 
sent from Washington ; nor were they allowed to regulate the 
salaries of any of -these functionaries, or the daily allowance of 
the legislative body, or even the pay of the clerks and door- 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 19 

keepers ; but they were left free to adopt Slavery. And this 
was called Popular Sovereignty ! Time does not allow, nor 
does the occasion require, that I should stop to dwell on this 
transparent device to cover a transcendent wrong. Suffice it to 
say, that Slavery is in itself an arrogant denial of Human 
Rights, and by no human reason can the power to establish 
such a Avrong be placed among the attributes of any just sov- 
ereignty. In refusing it such a place, I do not deny popular 
rights, but uphold them ; I do not restrain popular rights, but 
extend them. And, sir, to this conclusion you must yet come, 
unless deaf, not only to the admonitions of political justice, but 
also to the genius of our own constitution, under which, when 
properly mterpreted, no valid claim for Slavery can be set up 
anywhere in the national territory. The senator from Michi- 
gan [Mr. Cass] may say, in response to the senator from Mis- 
sissippi [Mr. Broavn], that Slavery cannot go into the Terri- 
tory under the constitution, without legislative introduction ; 
and permit me to add, in response to both, that Slavery cannot 
go there at all. Nothing can come out of notltlng ; and there 
is absolutely nothing in the constitution out of which Slavery 
can be derived, while there are provisions, which, when properly 
interpreted, make its existence anywhere within the exclusive 
national jurisdiction impossible. 

The offensive provision in the bill was in its form a legislative 
anomaly, utterly wanting the natural directness and simplicity 
of an honest transaction. It did not undertake openly to re- 
peal the old Prohibition of Slavery, but seemed to mince the 
matter, as if conscious of the swindle. It is said that this Pro- 
hibition, " being inconsistent with the principle of non-inter- 
vention by Congress with Slavery in the States and Territories 
as recognized by the legislation of 1850, commonly called the 
Compromise Measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void." 
Thus, with insidious ostentation, was it pretended that an act, 
violating the greatest compromise of our legislative history, 
and setting loose the foundations of all compromise, was 



20 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

derived out of a compromise. Then followed in the Bill the 
further declaration, which is entirely without precedent, and 
which has been aptly called " a stump speech in its belly," 
namely, " it being the true intent and meaning of this act, 
not to legishite Slavery into any Territory or State, nor to ex- 
clude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly 
free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their 
own way, subject only to the constitution of the United 
States." Here were smooth words, such as belong to a cun- 
ning tongue, enlisted in a bad cause. But, whatever may have 
been their various hidden meanings, this at least was evident, 
that, by their effect, the Congressional Prohibition of Slavery, 
which had always been regarded as a seven-fold shield, covering 
the whole Louisiana Territory north of 36° 30', was now re- 
moved, while a principle was declared, which would render the 
supplementary Prohibition of Slavery in Minnesota, Oregon, 
and Washington, "inoperative and void," and thus open to 
Slavery all these vast regions, now the rude cradles of mighty 
States. Here jon see the magnitude of the mischief contem- 
plated. But my purpose now is with the Crime against Kan- 
sas, and I shall not stop to expose the conspiracy beyond. 

Mr. President, men are wisely presumed to intend the natu- 
ural consequences of their conduct, and to seek what their acts 
seem to promote. Now, the Nebraska Bill, on its very face, 
openly cleared the way for Slavery, and it is not wrong to pre- 
sume that its originators intended the natural consequences of 
such an act, and sought in this way to extend Slavery. Of 
course, they did. And this is the first stage in the Crime 
against Kansas. 

But this was speedily followed by other developments. The 
bare-faced scheme was soon whispered, that Kansas must be a 
slave State. In conformity with this idea was the Government 
of this unhappy Territory organized in all its departments ; and 
thus did the President, by whose complicity the Prohibition of 
Slavery had been overthrown, lend himself to a new complicity 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 21 

— giving to the conspirators a lease of connivance, amounting 
even to copartnership. The Governor, Secretary, Chief Justice, 
Associate Justices, Attorney, and Marshal, with a whole 
caucus of other stipendiaries, nominated by the President and 
confirmed by the Senate, were all commended as friendly to 
Slavery. No man, with the sentiments of Washington, or Jef- 
ferson, or Franklin, found any favor ; nor is it too much to say, 
that, had these great patriots once more come among us, not 
one of them, with his recorded unretracted opinions on Slavery, 
could have been nominated by the President or confirmed by 
the Senate for any post in that Territory. With such aus- 
pices the conspiracy proceeded. Even in advance of the Ne- 
braska Bill, secret societies were organized in Missouri, osten- 
sibly to protect her institutions, and afterwards, under the 
name of " Self- Defensive Associations," and of " Blue Lodges," 
these were multiplied throughout the western counties of that 
State, before any counter-movement from the North. It 
was confidently anticipated, that, by the activity of these socie- 
ties, and the interest of slaveholders everywhere, with the ad- 
vantao-e derived from the nei^^hborhood of Missouri, and the 
influence of the Territorial Government, Slavery might be 
introduced into Kansas, quietly but surely, without arousing a 
conflict ; that the crocodile egg might be stealthily dropped in 
the sunburnt soil, there to be hatched unobserved until it sent 
forth its reptile monster. 

But the conspiracy was unexpectedly balked. The debate, 
which convulsed Congress, had stirred the whole country. At- 
tention from all sides was directed upon Kansas, which at once 
became the favorite goal of emigration. The Bill had loudly 
declared that its object was " to leave the people perfectly free 
to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own 
way;" and its supporters everywhere challenged the determi- 
nation of the question between Freedom and Slavery by a com- 
petition of emigration. Thus, while opening the Territory to 
Slavery, the Bill also opened it to emigrants from every quar- 



22 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

ter, who might bj their votes redress the wrong. The populous 
North, stung by a sharp sense of outrage, and inspired bj a 
noble cause, poured into the debatable land, and promised soon 
to establish a supremacy of numbers there, involving, of course, 
a just supremacy of Freedom. 

Then was conceived the consummation of the Crime ao-ainst 
Kansas. What could not be accomplished peaceably, was to be 
accomplished forcibly. The reptile monster, that could not be 
quietly and securely hatched there, was to be pushed full-grown 
into the Territory. All efforts were now given to the dismal 
work of forcing Slavery on Free Soil. In flagrant derogation 
of the very Popular Sovereignty whose name helped to impose 
this Bill upon the country, the atrocious object was now dis- 
tinctly avowed. And the avowal has been followed by the act. 
Slavery has been forcibly introduced into Kansas, and placed 
under the formal safeguards of pretended law. How this was 
done, belongs to the argument. 

In depicting this consummation, the simplest outline, with- 
out one word of color, will be best. Whether regarded in its 
mass or its details, in its origin or its result, it is all blackness, 
illumined by nothing from itself, but only by the heroism of 
the undaunted men and women whom it environed. A plain 
statement of facts will be a picture of fearful truth, which faith- 
ful history will preserve in its darkest gallery. In the fore- 
ground all will recognize a familiar character, in himself a con- 
necting link between the President and the border ruffian, — less 
conspicuous for ability than for the exalted place he has occu- 
pied, — who once sat in the seat where you now sit, sir ; w^iere 
once sat John Adams and Thomas Jefferson ; also, where once 
sat Aaron Burr. I need not add the name of David R. Atchi- 
son. You have not foro;otten that, at the session of Con ogress 
immediately succeeding the Nebraska Bill, he came tardily to 
his duty here, and then, after a short time, disappeared. The 
secret has been long since disclosed. Like Catiline, he stalked 
into this Chamber, reeking with conspiracy — immo in Sena- 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 23 

turn venit — and then like Catiline he skulked away — ahiit^ 
excessit, evasit, crupit — to join and provoke the conspirators, 
who at a distance awaited their congenial chief. Under the 
influence of his malign presence the Crime ripened to its fatal 
fruits, while the similitude with Catiline was again renewed in 
the sympathy, not even concealed, which he found in the very 
Senate itself, where, beyond even the Roman example, a sen- 
ator has not hesitated to appear as his open compurgator. 

And now, as I proceed to show the way in which this Terri- 
tory was overrun and finally subjugated to Slavery, I desire to 
remove in advance all question with regard to the authority on 
which I rely. The evidence is secondary ; but it is the best 
which, in the nature of the case, can be had, and it is not less 
clear, direct, and peremptory, than any by which we are assured 
of the campaigns in the Crimea or the fall of Sevastopol. In 
its manifold mass, I confidently assert that it is such a body of 
evidence as the human mind is not able to resist. It is found 
in the concurring reports of the public press ; in the letters of 
correspondents ; in the testimony of travellers; and in the unaf- 
fected story to which I have listened from leading citizens, who, 
durinoj this winter, have "come flockino;" here from that dis- 
tant Territory. It breaks forth in the irrepressible outcry, 
reachinir us from Kansas, in truthful tones, which leave no 
ground of mistake. It addresses us in formal complaints, 
instinct with the indignation of a people determined to be free, 
and unimpeachable as the declarations of a murdered man on 
his dying bed against his murderer. And let me add, that all 
this testimony finds an echo in the very statute-book of the con- 
spirators, and also in language dropped from the President of 
the United States. 

I begin with an admission from the President himself, in 
whose sight the people of Kansas have little favor. And yet, 
after arraicrnino: the innocent emiorrants from the North, he was 
constrained to declare that their conduct was " fiir from justify- 
ing the illegal and reprehensible counter-movement which en- 



24 SPEECH OF HOX. CHARLES SUMNER. 

sued." Then, by the reluctant admission of the Chief Magis- 
trate, there was a counter-movement, at once illegal and repre- 
hensible. I thank thee. President, for teaching me these 
■words ; and I now put them in the front of this exposition, as 
in themselves a confession. Sir, this "illegal and reprehensi- 
ble counter-movement" is none other than the dreadful Crime 
— under an apologetic alias — by which, through successive 
invasions, Slavery has been forcibly planted in this Territory. 

Next to this Presidential admission must be placed the details 
of the invasions, which I now present as not only "illegal and 
reprehensible," but also unquestionable evidence of the result- 
ing Crime. 

The violence, for some time threatened, broke forth on the 
29th November, 1854, at the first election of a Delegate to 
Congress, when companies from Missouri, amounting to up- 
wards of one thousand, crossed into 1K ansa s, and, with force and 
arms, proceeded to vote for Mr. Whitfield, the candidate of 
Slavery. An eye-witness, General Pomeroy, of superior intel- 
ligence and perfect integrity, thus describes thi» scene : 

" The first ballot-box that was opened upon our virgin soil was closed 
to us by overpowering numbers and impending force. So bold and 
reckless were our invaders, that they cared not to conceal their attack. 
They came upon us, not in the guise ^of voters, to steal away our fran- 
chise, but boldly and openly, to snatch it with a strong hand. They 
came directly from their own homes, and in compact and organized 
bands, with arms in hand, and provisions for the expedition, marched 
to our polls, and, when their work was done, returned whence they 
came." 

Here was an outrage at which the coolest blood of patriotism 
boils. . Though, for various reasons unnecessary to develop, the 
busy settlers allowed the election to pass uncontested, still the 
means employed were none the less "illegal and reprehen- 
sible." 

This infliction was a significant prelude to the grand invasion 
of the 30th March, 1855, at the election of the first Territorial 



SPEECH OF HOX. CHARLES SUMNER. 25 

Leo-islature under the or";anic law, when an armed multitude 
from Missouri entered the Territory, in larger numbers than 
General Taylor commanded at Buena Vista, or than General 
Jackson had within his lines at New Orleans — larger far than 
our fathers rallied on Bunker Hill. On they came as an "army 
with banners," organized in companies, with officers, munitions, 
tents, and provisions, as though marching upon a foreign foe, 
an.l breathing loud-mouthed threats that they would carry their 
purpose, if need be, by the bowie-knife and revolver. Among 
them, according to his own confession, was 'David K. Atchison, 
belted with the vulgar arms of his vulgar comrades. Arrived 
at their several destinations on the night before the election, 
the invaders pitched their tents, placed their sentries, and 
^vaited for the coming day. The same trustworthy eye-wit- 
ness whom I have already quoted says, of one locality : 

" Baggage- wagons were there, with arms and ammunition enough for 
a protracted fight, and among them two brass field-pieces, ready 
charged. They came with drums beating and flags flying, and their 
leaders were of the most prominent and conspicuous men of their State." 

Of another locality he says : 

" The invaders came together in one armed and organized body, with 
trains of fifty wagons, besides horsemen, and, the night before election, 
pitched their camp in the vicinity of the polls ; and, having appointed 
their own judges in place of those who, from intimidation or otherwise, 
failed to attend, they voted without any proof of residence." 

With force they were able, on the succeeding day, in some 
p>laces, to intimidate the judges of elections ; in others, to sub- 
stitute judges of their own appointment ; in others, to wrest the 
ballot-boxes from their rightful possessors, and everywhere to 
exercise a complete control of the election, and thus, by a pre- 
ternatural audacity of usurpation, impose a Legislature upon the 
free people of Kansas. Thus was conquered the Sevastopol of 
that Territory ! 

But it was not enough to secure the Legislature. The elec- 



26 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

tion of a Member of Congress recurred on the 2d October, 1855 
and the same foreigners, who had learned their strength, again 
manifested it. Another invasion, in controlling numbers, came 
from Missouri, and once more forcibly exercised the electoral 
franchise in Kansas. 

At last, in the latter days of November, 1855, a storm, long 
brewing, burst upon the heads of the devoted people. The bal- 
lot-boxes had been violated, and a Legislature installed, which 
had proceeded to carry out the conspiracy of the invaders ; but 
the good people of the Territory, born to Freedom, and edu- 
cated as American citizens, showed no signs of submission. 
Slavery, though recognized by pretended law, was in many 
places practically an outlaw. To the lawless borderers, this 
was hard to bear ; and, like the Heathen of old, they raged, 
particularly against the town of Lawrence, already known, by 
the firmness of its principles and the character of its citizens, 
as the citadel of the good cause. On this account they threat- 
ened, in their peculiar language, to '''wipe it out." Soon the 
hostile power was gathered for this purpose. The wickedness 
of this invasion was enhanced by the way in which it began. A 
citizen of Kansas, by the name of Dow, was murdered by one 
of the partisans of Slavery, under the name of " law and order." 
Such an outrage naturally aroused indignation, and provoked 
threats. The professors of " law and order " allowed the mur- 
derer to escape ; and, still further to illustrate the irony of the 
name they assumed, seized the friend of the murdered man, 
whose few neighbors soon rallied for his rescue. This transac- 
tion, though totally disregarded in its chief front of wickedness, 
became the excuse for unprecedented excitement. The weak 
Governor, with no faculty higher than servility to Slavery, — 
whom the President, in his official delinquency, had appointed 
to a trust worthy only of a well-balanced character, — was fright- 
ened from his propriety. By proclamation he invoked the Terri- 
tory. By telegraph he invoked the President. The Territory 
would not respond to his senseless appeal. The President was 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 27 

dumb ; but the proclamation was circulated throughout the bor- 
der counties of Missouri; and Platte, Clay, Carlisle, Sabine, 
Howard, and Jefferson, each of them contributed a volunteer 
company, recruited from the roadsides, and armed with weapons 
which chance afforded, — known as the "shot-gun militia," — 
with a Missouri officer as commissary-general; dispensing ra- 
tions, and another Missouri officer as general-in-chief ; with 
two wagon-loads of rifles, belonging to Missouri, drawn by six 
mules, from its arsenal at Jefferson City ; with seven pieces of 
cannon, belonorincj to the United States, from its arsenal at Lib- 
erty ; and this formidable force, amounting to at least eighteen 
hundred men, terrible with threats, with oaths, and with whiskey, 
crossed the borders, and encamped in larger part at Wacherusa, 
over against the doomed town of Lawrence, which was now threat- 
ened with destruction. With these invaders was the Governor, 
who by this act levied war upon the people he was sent to pro- 
tect. In camp with him was the original Catiline of the con- 
spiracy, while by his side was the docile Chief Justice and the 
docile Judsres. But this is not the first instance in which an 
unjust Governor has found tools where he ought to have found 
justice. In the great impeachment of Warren Hastings, the 
British orator by whom it was conducted exclaims, in words 
strictly applicable to the misdeed I now arraign, "Had he not 
the Chief Justice, the tamed and domesticated Chief Justice, 
who waited on him like a familiar spirit?" Thus was this 
invasion countenanced by those who should have stood in the 
breach against it. For more than a week it continued, while 
deadly conflict seemed imminent. I do not dwell on the hero- 
ism by which it was encountered, or the mean retreat to which 
it was compelled ; for that is not necessary to exhibit the Crime 
which you are to judge. But I cannot forbear to add other 
additional features, furnished in the letter of a clergyman, writ- 
ten at the time, who saw and was a part of what he describes : 

" Our citizens have been shot at, and, in two instances, murdered, our 
houses invaded, hay-ricks burnt, corn and other provisions plundered. 



28 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

cattle driven off, all communication cut off between us and the States, 
wagons on the Ayay to us with provisions stopped and plundered, and 
the drivers taken prisoners, and we in hourly expectation of .an attack. 
Nearly every man has been in arms in the village. Fortifications have 
been thrown up, by mcessant labor, night and day. The sound of the 
drum, and the tramp of armed men, resounded through our streets ; 
families feeing, with their household goods, for safety. Day Ijeibre yes- 
terday, the report of cannon was heard at our house from the direction 
of Lecompton. Last Thursday, one of our neighbors, — one of the most 
peaceable and excellent of men, from Ohio, — on his way home, was set 
upon by a gang of twelve men on horseback, and shot down. Over 
eight hundred men are gathered, under arms, at Lawrence. As yet, no 
act of violence has been perpetrated by those on our side. No blood of 
retaliation stains our hands. We stand and are ready to act purely in 
the defence of our homes and lives/ ^ 

But the catalogue is not yet complete. On the 15th of 
December, when the people assembled to vote on the constitu- 
tion then submitted for adoption, — only a few days after the 
Treaty of Peace between the Governor on the one side and the 
town of Lawrence on the other. — another and fifth irruption 
was made. But I leave all this untold. Enough of these 
details has been o-iven. 

a 

Five several times, and more, have these invaders entered 
Kansas in armed array ; and thus five several times, and more, 
have they trampled upon the organic law of the Territory. 
But these extraordinary expeditions are simply the extraordinary 
witnesses to successive uninterrupted violence. They stand out 
conspicuous, but not alone. The spirit of evil, in which they 
had their origin, was Avakeful and incessant. From the 1)egin- 
ning, it hung upon the skirts of this interesting Territory, 
harrowing its peace, disturbing its prosperity, and keeping its 
inhabitants under the painful alarms of war. Thus was all 
security of person, of property, and of labor, overthrown : and 
when I urge this incontrovertible fact, I set forth a wrong which 
is small only by the side of the giant wrong, for the consum- 
mation of which all this was done. Sir, what is man, what 
is government, without security ; in the absence of which, nor 



SPEECH OF HON. CHAKLES SUMNER. 29 

man nor government can proceed in development, or enjoy the 
fruits of existence ? Without security, civilization is cramped 
and dwarfed. Without security, there can be no true Freedom. 
Nor shall I say too much, when I declare that security, guarded, 
of course, by its offspring Freedom, is the true end and aim of 
government. Of this indispensable boon the people of Kansaa 
have thus far been despoiled — absolutely, totally. All this is 
aggravated by the nature of their pursuits, rendering them 
peculiarly sensitive to interruption, and, at the same time, 
attesting their innocence. They are for the most part engaged 
in the cultivation of the soil, which from time immemorial has 
been the sweet employment of undisturbed industry. Contented 
in the returns of bounteous nature and the shade of his own 
trees, the husbandman is not aggressive ; accustomed to produce, 
and not to destroy, he is essentially peaceful, unless his home is 
invaded, when his arm derives vigor from the soil he treads, 
and his soul inspiration from the heavens beneath whose canopy 
he daily toils. And such are the people of Kansas, whose se- 
curity has been overthrown. Scenes from which civilization 
averts her countenance have been a part of their daily life. The 
border incursions, which, in barbarous ages or barbarous lands, 
have fretted and " harried " an exposed people, have been here 
renewed, with this peculiarity, that our border robbers do not 
simply levy black mail and drive off a few cattle, like those 
who acted under the inspiration of the Douglas of other days ; 
that they do not seize a few persons, and sweep them away into 
captivity, like the African slave-traders whom we brand as 
pirates ; but that they commit a succession of acts, in which all 
border sorrows and all African wrongs are revived together on 
American soil, and which for the time being annuls all protec- 
tion of all kinds, and enslaves the whole Territory. 

Private griefs mingle their poignancy with public wrongs. 

I do not dwell on the anxieties which fimilies have undergone, 

exposed to sudden assault, and obliged to lie down to rest with 

the alarms of war ringing in their ears, not knowing that 

3* 



so SPEECH OF HOX. CHAELES SUMNER. 

another day might be spared to them. Throughout this bitter 
winter, with the thermometer at thirty degrees below zero, the 
citizens of Lawrence have been constrained to sleep under arms, 
with sentinels treading their constant watch against surprise. 
But our souls are wrung by individual instances. In vain do 
we condemn the cruelties of another age — the refinements 
of torture to which men have been doomed, the rack and 
thumb-screw of the Inquisition, the last agonies of the regi- 
cide Ravaillac, "Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of 
steel," — for kindred outraiT:;es have dis2;raced these borders. 
Murder has stalked, assassination has skulked in the tall srass 
of the prairie, and the vindictiveness of man has assumed un- 
wonted forms. A preacher of the Gospel of the Saviour has 
been ridden on a rail, and then thrown into the Missouri, 
fastened to a log, and left to drift down its muddy, tortuous 
current. And lately we have had the tidings of that enor- 
mity without precedent — a deed without a name — where a 
candidate for the Legislature was most brutally gashed with 
knives and hatchets, and then, after weltering in blood on the 
snow-clad earth, was trundled along with gaping wounds, to 
fall dead in the face of his wife. It is common to drop a tear 
of sympathy over the trembling solicitudes of our early 
fathers, exposed to the stealthy assault of the savage foe ; and 
an eminent American artist has pictured this scene in a mar- 
ble group of rare beauty, on the front of the National Capitol, 
where the uplifted tomahawk is arrested by the strong arm 
and generous countenance of the pioneer, while his wife and 
children find shelter at his feet ; but now^ the tear must be 
dropped over the trembling solicitudes of fellow-citizens, seek- 
ing to build a new State in Kansas, and exposed to the 
perpetual assault of murderous robbers from Missouri. 
Hirelings, picked from the drunken spew and vomit of an 
uneasy civilization — in the form of men — 

" Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men ; 
As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs. 



SPEECH OP HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 31 

Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are called 
All by the name of dogs : " 

leashed together by secret signs and lodges, have renewed the 
incredible atrocities of the Assassins and of the Thugs ; show- 
in o- the blind submission of the Assassins to the Old Man 
of the Mountain, in robbing Christians on the road to Jerusa- 
lem, and showing the heartlessness of the Thugs, who, avowing 
that murder was their religion, waylaid travellers on the great 
road from Agra to Delhi ; with the more deadly bowie-knife for 
the dagger of the Assassin, and the more deadly revolver for 
the noose of the Thug. 

In these invasions, attended by the entire subversion of all 
security in this Territory, with the plunder of the ballot-box, 
and the pollution of the electoral franchise, I show simply the 
process in unprecedented Crime. If that be the best govern- 
ment where an injury to a single citizen is resented as an 
injury to the whole State, then must our" Government forfeit all 
claim to any such eminence, while it leaves its citizens thus 
exposed. In the outrage upon the ballot-box, even without 
the illicit fruits which I shall soon exhibit, there is a peculiar 
crime of the deepest dye, though subordinate to the final 
Crime, which should be promptly avenged. In countries 
where royalty is upheld, it is a special offence to rob the crown 
jewels, which are the emblems of that sovereignty before 
which the loyal subject bows, and it is treason to be found in 
adultery with the Queen, for in this way may a false heir be 
imposed upon the State ; but in our Republic the ballot-box 
is the single priceless jewel of that sovereignty which we 
respect, and the electoral franchise, out of which are born the 
rulers of a free people, is the Queen whom we arc to guard 
against pollution. In this plain presentment, whether as 
regards security, or as regards elections, there is enough, 
surely, without proceeding further, to justify the intervention 
of Congress, most promptly and completely, to throw over this 



32 SPEECH OP HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

oppressed people the impenetrable shield of the constitution 
and laws. But the half is not yet told. 

As every point in a wide-spread horizon radiates from a com- 
mon centre, so everything said or done in this vast circle of 
Crime radiates from the One Idea^ that Kansas, at all haz- 
ards, must be made a slave State. In all the manifoli 
wickednesses that have occurred, and in every successive in- 
vasion, this One Idea has been ever present, as the Satanic 
tempter — the motive power — the causing cause. 

To accomplish this result, three things were attempted . 
fii^st^ by outrages of all kinds to drive the friends of Freedom 
already there out of the Territory ; secondly^ to deter others 
from coming ; and, thirdly^ to obtain the complete control of 
the Government. The process of driving out, and also of 
deterring, has failed. On the contrary, the friends of Free- 
dom there became more fixed in their resolves to stay and 
fight the battle, which they had never sought, but from which 
they disdained to retreat ; while the friends of Freedom else- 
where were more aroused to the duty of timely succors, by men 
and munitions of just self-defence. 

But, while defeated in the first two processes proposed, the 
conspirators succeeded in the last. By the violence already 
portrayed at the election of the 30th March, when the polls 
were occupied by the armed hordes from Missouri, they im- 
posed a Legislature upon the Territory, and thus, under the 
iron mask of law, established a usurpation not less complete 
than any in history. That this was done, I proceed to prove. 
Here is the evidence : 

1. Only in this way can this extraordinary expedition be 
adequately explained. In the words of Moliere, once employed 
by John Quincy Adams, in the other House, Que d'lahle 
allaient-ils faire dans cette galere? What did they go into 
the Territory for ? If their purposes were peaceful, as has been 
suggested, why cannons, arms, flags, numbers, and all this 
violence ? As simple citizens, proceeding to the honest exer- 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 33 

cise of the electoral franchise, they might have gone with nothing 
more than a pilgrim's staff. Philosophy always seeks a sufficient 
cause^ and only in the One Idea^ already presented, can a 
cause be found in any degree commensurate with this Crime • 
and this becomes so only when we consider the mad fanaticism 
of Slavery. 

2. Public notoriety steps forward to confirm the sugo-estion 
of reason. In every place where truth can freely travel it 
has been asserted and understood that the Legislature was im- 
posed upon Kansas by foreigners from Missouri ; and this uni- 
versal voice is now received as undeniable verity. 

3. It is also attested by the harangues of the conspirators. 
Here is what Stringfellow said before the invasion : 

" To those who have qualms of conscience as to violating laws, State 
or National, the time has come when such impositions must be disre- 
garded, as your rights and property are in danger ; ajid I advise you, one 
and all, to enter every election district in Kansas, in defiance of Reeder 
and his vile myrmidons, and vote at the point of the bowie-knife and 
revolver. Neither give nor take quarter, as our case demands it. It is 
enough that the slaveholding interest wills it, from which there is no 
appeal. What right has Governor Reeder to rule Missourians in 
Kanzas? His proclamation and prescribed oath must be repudiated. It 
is your interest to do so. Mind that Slavery is established where it is 
not prohibited." 

Here is what Atchison said a/Ver the invasion : 

" Well, what next ? Why, an election for members of the Legislature 
to organize the Territory must be held. What did I advise you to do 
then? Why, meet them on their own ground, and beat them at their 
own game, again ; and, cold and inclement as the weather was, I weiit 
over with a company of men. My object in going was not to vote, I 
had no right to vote, unless I had disfranchised myself in Missouri. I 
was not within two miles of a voting place. My object in going was 
not to vote, but to settle a difficulty between two of our candidates ; and 
the Abolitionists of the North said, and published it abroad, that Atchison 
was there with boioie-knife and revolver; ayid, by God! Hwas true. I 
never did (jo into that Territory — / never intend to go into that Territory 



34 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

— ivithout being prepared for all such kind of cattle. Well, we beat theiL, 
and Governor Keeder gave certificates to a majority of all the members 
of both Houses ; and then, after they were organized, as everybody will 
admit, they were the only competent persons to say who were, and who 
were not, members of the same." 

4. It is confirmed bj the contemporaneous admission of the 
Squatter Sovereign., a paper published at Atchison, and at 
once the organ of the President and of these borderers, which, 
under date of 1st of April, thus recounts the victory : 

" Independence \Missouri'\., March .31, 1855. 
" Several hundred emigrants from Kansas have just entered our city. 
They were preceded by the Westport and Independence Brass Bands. 
They came in at the west side of the public square, and proceeded 
entirely around it, the bands cheering us with fine music, and the emi- 
grants with good news. Immediately following the bands were about 
two hundred horsemen in regular order ; following these were one hun- 
dred and fifty wagons, carriages, &c. They gave repeated cheers for 
Kansas and INIissouri. They report that not an Anti-Slavery man will 
be in the Legislature of Kansas. We have made a clean sweep. ^^ 

5. It is also confirmed by the contemporaneous testimony of 
another paper, always faithful to slavery, the New York 
Herald^ in the letter of a correspondent from Brunswick, in 
Missouri, under date of 20th April, 1855 : 

" From five to seven thousand men started from Missouri to attend 
the election, some to remove, but the most to return to their families, 
with an intention, if they liked the Territory, to make it their perma- 
nent abode at the earliest moment practicable. But they intended to 
vote. The Missourians were, many of them, Douglas men. There were 
one hundred and fifty voters from this county, one hundred and seventy- 
five from Howard, one hundred from Cooper. Indeed, every county 
furnished its quota ; and when they set out, it looked like an army." 
* * * "They were armed." * * * * «'And, as there were no houses 
in tlie Territory, they carried tents. Their mission was a peaceable one, 
— to vote, and to drive down stakes for their future homes. After the 
election, some one thousand five hundred of the voters sent a committee 
to Mr. Reeder, to ascertain if it was his purpose to i^tify the election 



SPEECH OF HON. CHAKLES SUMNER. 35 

He answered that it was, and said the majority at an election must carry 
the day. But it is not to be denied that the one thousand five hundred, 
apprehending that the Governor might attempt to play the tyrant, — 
since his conduct had already been insidious and unjust, — wore on their 
hats bunches of hemp. They were resolved, if a tyrant attempted to 
trample upon the rights of the sovereign people, to hang him." 

6. It is again confirmed by the testimony of a lady who for 
five years has lived in Western Missouri, and thus writes in a 
Jetter published in the Neio Haven Register : 

" Miami, Saline Co., Nov. 26, 1855. 
" You ask me to tell you something about the Kansas and Missouri 
troubles. Of course you know in what they have originated. There is 
no clenyinf/ that the Missourians have determined to control the elections, if 
possible; and I don't know that their measures would be justifiable, 
except upon the principle of self-preservation ; and that, you know, is 
the first law of nature." 

7. And it is confirmed still further by the circular of the 
Emigration Society of Lafayette, in Missouri, dated as late as 
25th March, 1856, in which the efibrts of Missourians are 
openly confessed : 

" The western counties of Missouri have, for the last two years, been 
heavily taxed, both in money and time, in fighting the battles of the 
South. Lafayette County alone has expended more than one hundred 
thousand dollars in money, and as much or more in time. Up to this time, 
the border counties of Missouri have upheld and maintained the rights and 
interests of the South in this stru(j()le, unassisted, and not unsuccessfully. 
But the Abolitionists, staking their all upon the Kansas issue, and hesi- 
tating at no means, fair or foul, are moving heaven and earth to render 
that beautiful Territory a Free State. ''^ 

8. Here, also, is complete admission of the usurpation, by 
^ the Intellirjencer, a leading paper of St. Louis, Missouri, made 

in the ensuing summer : 

"Atchison and Stringfellow, with their Missouri followers, over- 
whelmed the settlers in Kansas, browbeat and bullied them, and took 



36 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

the GoTernment from their hands. Missouri votes elected the present 
body of men who insult public intelligence and popular rights by stj-ling 
themselves ' the Legislature of Kansas.' This body of men are helping 
themselves to fat speculations by locating the ' seat of Government,' and 
getting town lots for their votes. They are passing laws disfranchising 
all the citizens of Kansas who do not believe Negro Slavery to be a 
Christian institution and a national blessing. They are proposing to 
punish with imprisonment the utterance of views inconsistent with their 
own ; and they are trying to perpetuate their preposterous and infernal 
tyranny by appointing, for a term of years, creatures of their OAvn, as 
commissioners in every county, to lay and collect taxes, and see that the 
laws they are passing are faithfully executed. Has this age anything 
to compare with these acts in audacity ? ' ' 

9. In harmony with all these is the authoritative declaration 
of Governor Reeder, in a speech addressed to his neighbors, at 
Easton, Pennsylvania, at tlie end of April, 1855, and immedi- 
ately afterwards published in the Washington Union. Here 
it is : 

" It was, indeed, too true that Kansas had been invaded, conquered, 
subjugated, by an armed force from beyond her borders, led on by a 
fanatical spirit, trampling under foot the principles of the Kansas bill 
and the right of suffrao;e." 

10. And in similar harmony is the complaint of the people 
of Kansas, in a public meeting at Big Springs, on the 5th Sep- 
tember, 1855, embodied in these words : 

" Resolved, That the body of men who, for the last two months, have 
been passing laws for the people of our Territory, moved, counselled, 
and dictated to, by the demagogues of Missouri, are to us a foreign body, 
representing only the lawless invaders who elected them, and not the 
people of the Territory ; that we repudiate their action as the monstrous 
consummation of an act of violence, usurpation, and fraud, unparalleled 
in the history of the Union, and worthy only of men unfitted for the 
duties and regardless of the responsibilities of Republicans." 

11. And, finally, by the official minutes which have been 
laid on our table by the President, the invasion, which ended in 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 87 

the usurpation, is clearly established ; but the effect of this 
testimony has been so amply exposed by the senator from Ver- 
mont [Mr. CollaxMEr], in his able and indefatigable argument, 
that I content myself viith simply referring to it. 

On this cumulative, irresistible evidence, in concurrence with 
the antecedent history, I rest. And yet, senators here have 
argued that this cannot be so ; precisely as the conspiracy of 
Catiline was doubted in the Roman Senate. NonmdU sunt in 
hoc ordlne, qui ant ea, qucB ifnminent, 7ion videant ; aut e«, 
qum vident^ dissimulent ; qui s pern CaiilincB mollibus sen- 
tentiis aluenmt, conjurationemque nascentem non credendo 
cor roboraver lint. As I listened to the senator from Illinois, 
while he painfully strove to show that there was no usurpation, 
I was reminded of the effort by a distinguished logician, in a 
m.uch-admired argument, to prove that Napoleon Bonaparte 
never existed. And permit me to say that the fact of his 
existence is not placed more completely above doubt than the 
fact of this usurpation. This I assert on the proofs already 
presented. But confirmation comes almost while I speak. The 
columns of the public press are now daily filled with testimony, 
solemnly taken before the committee of Congress in Kansas, 
which shows, in awful light, the violence ending in the Usurp- 
ation. Of this I may speak on some other occasion. Mean- 
while I proceed with the development of the Crime. 

The usurping Legislature assembled at the appointed place in 
the interior, and then, at once, in opposition to the veto of the 
Governor, by a majority of two thirds, removed to the Shawnee 
Mission, a place in most convenient proximity to the Missouri 
borderers, by whom it had been constituted, and whose tyran- 
nical agent it was. The statutes of Missouri, in all their text, 
with their divisions and subdivisions, were adopted bodily, and 
with such little local adaptation that the word " State " in the 
original is not even changed to "Territory," but is left to be 
corrected by an explanatory act. But all this general legis- 
4 



38 SPEECH OP HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

lation was entirely subordinate to the special act, entitled " An 
Act to punish Offences against Slave Property," in ^vhich the 
One Idea, that provoked this ^vhole conspiracy, is, at last, 
embodied in legislative form, and human slavery openly recog- 
nized on free soil, under the sanction of pretended law. This 
act of thirteen sections is in itself a Dance of Death. But its 
complex completeness of wickedness, without a parallel, may be 
partially conceived, when it is understood that in three sections 
only of it is the penalty of death denounced no less than forty- 
eight different times, by as many changes of language, against 
the heinous offence, described in forty-eight different ways, of 
interfering with what does not exist in that Territory, — and 
under the constitution cannot exist there, — I mean property 
in human flesh. Thus is Liberty sacrificed to Slavery, and 
Death summoned to sit at the gates as guardian of the Wrong. 
But the work of Usurpation was not perfected even yet. It 
had already cost too much to be left at any hazard. 

" To be thus was nothing ; 



■• But to be safely thus ! " 

Such was the object. And this could not be, except by the 
entire prostration of all the safeguards of human rights. The 
liberty of speech, which is the very breath of a republic; the 
press, which is the terror of wrong-doers ; the bar, through 
which the oppressed beards the arrogance of law ; the jury, by 
which right is vindicated ; all these must be struck down, while 
officers are provided, in all places, ready to be the tools of this 
tyranny ; and then, to obtain final assurance that their crime 
was secure, the whole Usurpation, stretching over the Territory, 
must be fastened and riveted by legislative bolts, spikes, and 
screws, so as to defy all effort at change through the ordi- 
nary forms of lam. To this work, in its various parts, were 
bent the subtlest energies ; and never, from Tubal Cain to this 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 89 

hour, was any fabric forged with more desperate skill and 
completeness. 

Mark, sir, three different legislative enactments, which con- 
stitute part of this work. Firsi, according to one act, all who 
deny, by spoken or written word, " the right of persons to hold 
slaves in this territory," are denounced as felons, to be punished 
by imprisonment at hard labor, for a term not less than two 
years ; it may be for life. And, to show the extravagance of 
this injustice, it has been well put by the senator from Vermont 
[Mr. Collamer], that should the senator from Michigan [Mr. 
Cass], who believes that Slavery cannot exist in a Territory, 
unless introduced by express legislative acts, venture there 
with his moderate opinions, his doom must be that of a felon ! 
To this extent are the great liberties of speech and of the press 
subverted. Secondly, by another act, entitled " An Act con- 
cerning Attorneys-at-Law," no person can practise as an 
attorney, unless he shall obtain a license from the Territorial 
courts, which, of course, a tyrannical discretion will be free to 
deny ; and, after obtaining such license, he is constrained to 
take an oath, not only "to support" the constitution of the 
United States, but also " to support and sustain" — mark here 
the reduplication ! — the Territorial act, and the Fugitive Slave 
Bill; thus erecting a test for the function of the bar, calculated 
to exclude citizens who honestly regard that latter legislative 
enormity as unfit to be obeyed. And, thirdly, by another act, 
entitled "An Act concerning Jurors," all persons "conscien- 
tiously opposed to holding slaves," or " not admitting the right 
to hold slaves in the Territory," are excluded from the jury on 
every question, civil or criminal, arising out of asserted slave 
property ; while, in all cases, the summoning of the jury is left 
without one word of restraint to " the marshal, sheriff, or other 
officer," who are thus free to pack it according to their tyran- 
nical discretion. 

For the ready enforcement of all statutes against Human 
Freedom, the President had already furnished a powerful quota 



40 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

of officers, in tho Governor, Chief Justice, Judges, Secretary, 
Attorney, and Marshal. The Legislature completed this part 
of the work, by constituting, in each county, a Board of Com- 
??iissioners, composed of two persons, associated with the Pro- 
bate Judge, whose duty it is " to appoint a county treasurer, 
coroner, justices of the peace, constables, and all other officers 
provided for by law," and then proceeded to the choice of this 
very Board ; thus delegating and diffusing their usurped power, 
and tyrannically imposing upon the Territory a crowd of offi- 
cers in whose appointment the people have had no voice, 
directly or indirectly. 

And still the final inexorable work remained. A Leo-isla- 
ture, renovated in both branches, could not assemble until 
1858, so that, during this long intermediate period, this whole 
system must continue in the likeness of law, unless overturned 
by the Federal Government, or, in default of such interposition, 
by a generous uprising of an oppressed people. Bat it was 
necessary to guard against the possibility of change, even tar- 
dily, at a future election ; and this was done by two different 
acts ; under the Jirst of which, all who will not take the oath 
to support the Fugitive Slave Bill are excluded from the elect- 
ive franchise ; and under the second of which, all others are 
entitled to vote who shall tender a tax of one dollar to the 
Sheriff on the day of election ; thus, by provision of Territorial 
law, disfranchising all opposed to Slavery, and at the same time 
opening the door to the votes of the invaders ; by an unconsti- 
tutional shibboleth, excluding from the polls the mass of actual 
settlers, and by making the franchise depend upon a petty tax 
only, admitting to the polls the mass of borderers from ^lis- 
souri. Thus, by tyrannical forethought, the Usurpation not 
only fortified all that it did, but assumed a self-perpetiiating 
energy. 

Thus was the Crime consummated. Slavery now stands 
erect, clanking its chains on the Territory of Kansas, sur- ' 
rounded by a code of death, and trampling upon all cherished 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 41 

liberties, whether of speech, the press, the bar, the trial by jury, 
or the electoral franchise. And, sir, all this has been clone, 
not merely to introduce a wrong which in itself is a denial of all 
rights, and in dread of which a mother has lately taken the life 
of her offspring ; not merely, as has been sometimes said, to 
protect Slavery in Missouri, since it is futile for this State to 
complain of Freedom on the side of Kansas, when Freedom 
exists without complaint on the side of Iowa, and also on the 
side of Illinois ; but it has been done for the sake of political 
power, in order to bring two new slaveholding senators upon 
this floor, and thus to fortify in the National Government the 
desperate chances of a waning Oligarchy. As the ship, voyag- 
ing on pleasant summer seas, is assailed by a pirate crew, and 
robbed for the sake of its doubloons and dollars — so is this 
beautiful Territory now assailed in its peace and prosperity, and 
robbed, in order to wrest its political power to the side of 
Slavery. ^ Even now the black flag of the land-pirates from 
Missouri waves a.t the mast-head ; in their laws you hear the 
pirate yell, and see the flash of the pirate-knife ; while, incred- 
ible to relate ! the President, gathering the Slave Power at his 
back, testifies a pirate sympathy. 

Sir, all this was done in the name of Popular Sovereignty. 
And this is the close of the tragedy. Popular Sovereignty, 
which, when truly understood, is a fountain of just power, has 
ended in Popular Slavery ; hot merely in the subjection of the 
unhappy African race, but of this proud Caucasian blood, 
which you boast. The profession with which you began, of All 
by the People^ has been lost in the wretched reality of Nothing 
fcr the People. Popular Sovereignty, in whose deceitful 
name plighted faith was broken, and an ancient Landmark of 
Freedom was overturned now lifts itself before us, like Sin, in 
the terrible picture of Milton, 

" That saemed a woman to the waist, and fair, 
But ended foul in many a scaly fold 
Voluminous and vast, a serpent armed 

4* 



42 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMJ^ER. 

"With mortal sting ; about her middle round 
A cry of hell-hounds never ceasing barked 
With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung 
A hideous peal ; yet, when they list, would creep. 
If aught disturbed their noise, into her womb, 
And kennel there, yet there still barked and howled 
Within, unseen." 

The image is complete at all points ; and, with this exposure, I 
take my leave of the Crime against Kansas. 

II. Emerging from all the blackness of this Crime, in 
which we seem to have been lost, as in a savage wood, and 
turning our backs upon it, as upon desolation and death, from 
which, while others have suffered, we have escaped, I come now 
to The Apologies which the Crime has found. Sir, well maj 
you start at the suggestion that such a series of wrongs, so 
clearly proved by various testimony, so openly confessed by the 
wrong-doers, and so widely recognized throughout the country, 
should find Apologies. But the partisan spirit, now, as in 
other days, hesitates at nothing. The great crimes of history 
have never been without Apologies. The massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew, which you now instinctively condemn, was, at the 
time, applauded in high quarters, and even commemorated by 
a Papal medal, which may still be procured at Home ; as the 
Crime against Kansas, which is hardly less conspicuous in 
dreadful eminence, has been shielded on this floor by extenuat- 
ing words, and even by a Presidential message, which, like the 
Papal medal, can never be forgotten in considering the madness 
and perversity of men. 

Sir, the Ciime cannot be denied. The President himself 
has admitted '' illegal and reprehensible " conduct. To such 
conclusion he was compelled by irresistible evidence ; but what 
he mildly describes I openly arraign. Senators may affect to 
put it aside by a sneer ; or to reason it away by figures ; or to 
explain it by a theory, such as desperate invention has produced 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 43 

on this floor, that the Assassins and Thugs of Missouri were in 
reality citizens of Kansas; but all these efforts, so far as made, 
are only tokens of the weakness of the cause, while to the orig- 
inal Grime they add another offence of false testimony against 
innocent and suffering men. But the Apologies for the Crime 
are worse than the efforts at denial. In cruelty and heartless- 
ness they identify their authors with the great transgression. 

They are four in number, and four-fold in character. The 
first is the Apology tyrannical ; the second, the Apology im- 
becile ; the third, the A\)o\ogj absurd ; and the fourth, the 
Apology infamous. This is all. Tyranny, imbecility, ab- 
surdity, and infamy, all unite to dance, like the weird sisters, 
about this Crime. 

The Apology tyrannical is founded on the mistaken act of 
Governor Reeder, in authenticating the Usurping Legislature, 
by which it is asserted that, whatever may have been the actual 
force or fraud in its election, the people of Kansas are effect- 
ually concluded, and the whole proceeding is placed under the 
formal sanction of law. According to this assumption, complaint 
is now in vain, and it only remains that Congress should sit 
and hearken to it, without correcting the wrong, as the ancient 
tyrant listened and granted no redress to the human moans that 
issued from the heated brazen bull, which subtle cruelty had 
devised. This I call the Apology of technicality inspired by 
tyranny. 

The ficts on this head are few and plain. Governor Reeder, 
after allowing only five days for objections to the returns, — a 
space of time unreasonably brief in that extensive Territory, — 
declared a majority of the members of the Council and of the 
House of Representatives "duly elected," withheld certificates 
from certain others, because of satisfactory proof that they were 
not duly elected, and appointed a day for new elections to sup- 
ply these vacancies. Afterwards, by formal message, he recog- 



44 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

nized the Legislature as a legal body ; and when he vetoed their 
act of adjournment to the neighborhood of Missouri, he did it 
simply on the ground of the illegality of such an adjournment 
under the organic law. Now, to every assumption founded on 
these facts, there are two satisfactory replies : Jirst^ that no cer- 
tificate of the Governor can do more than authenticate a subsist- 
ing legal act, without of itself infusing legality where the 
essence of legality is not already ; and, secondly^ that violence 
or fraud, wherever disclosed, vitiates completely every proceed- 
ing. In denying these principles, you place the certificate 
above the thing certified, and give a perpetual lease to violence 
and fraud, merely because at an ephemeral moment they were 
unquestioned. This will not do. 

Sir, I am no apologist for Governor Reeder. There is sad 
reason to believe that he went to Kansas originally as the tool 
of the President; but his simple nature, nurtured in the 
atmosphere of Pennsylvania, revolted at the service required, 
and he turned from his patron to duty. Grievously did he err 
in yielding to the Legislature any act of authentication ; but he 
has in some measure answered for this error by determined 
efforts since to expose the utter illegality of that body, which 
he novf repudiates entirely. It was said of certain Roman 
Emperors, who did infinite mischief in theii' beginnings, and 
infinite good towards their ends, that they should never have 
been born, or never died ; and I would apply the same to the 
ofiicial life of this Kansas Governor. At all events, I dismiss 
the Apology founded on his acts, as the utterance of tyranny 
by the voice of law, transcending the declaration of the pedantic 
judge, in the British Parliament, on the eve of our Revolution, 
that our fathers, notwithstanding their complaints, were in 
reality represented in Parliament, inasmuch as their lands, under 
the original charters, were held "in common socage, as of the 
manor of Greenwich iii Kent," which, being duly represented, 
carried with it all the Colonies. Thus in other ages has 
tyranny assumed the voice of law. 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 45 

Next comes the Apology iijibecile, which is founded on the 
alleged want of power in the President to arrest this Crime. It 
is openly asserted that, under' the existing laws of the United 
States, the Chief Magistrate had no authority to interfere in 
Kansas for this purpose. Such is the broad statement, which, 
even if correct, furnishes no Apology for any proposed ratifica- 
tion of the Crime, but which is in reality untrue ; and this I 
call the Apology of imbecility. 

In other matters, no such ostentatious imbecility appears. 
Only lately, a vessel of war in the Pacific has chastised the 
cannibals of the Fejee Islands for alleged outrages on American 
citizens. Put no person of ordinary intelligence will pretend 
that American citizens in the Pacific have received wrongs 
from these cannibals comparable in atrocity to those received 
by American citizens in Kansas. Ah, sir, the interests of 
Slavery are not touched by any chastisement of the Fejees ! 

Constantly we are informed of efforts at New York, through 
the agency of the Government, and sometimes only on the 
breath of suspicion, to arrest vessels about to sail on foreign 
voyages in violation of our neutrality laws or treaty stipula- 
tions. Now, no man familiar with the cases will presume to sug- 
gest that the urgency for these arrests was equal to the urgency 
for interposition against these successive invasions from Mis- 
souri. But the Slave Power is not disturbed by such arrests at 
New York ! 

At this moment, the President exults in the vigilance with 
which he has prevented the enlistment of a few soldiers, to be 
carried off to Halifiix, in violation of our territorial sovereignty, 
and England is bravely threatened, even to the extent of a 
rupture of diplomatic relations, for her endeavor, though unsuc- 
cessful, and at once abandoned. Surely, no man in his senses 
will urge that this act was anything but trivial by the side of 
the Crime against Kansas. But the Slave Power is not con- 
cerned in this controversy ! 

Thus, where the Slave Power is indifferent, the President 



46 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

■will see that the laws are faithfully executed ; but, in other 
cases, where the interests of Slavery are at stake, he is con- 
trolled absolutely by this tyranny, ready at all times to do, or 
not to do, precisely as it dictates. Therefore it is that Kansas 
is left a prey to the Propagandists of Slavery, while the .vhole 
Treasury, the Army and Navy of the United States, are lavished 
to hunt a single slave through the streets of Boston. You have 
not forgotten the latter instance ; but I choose to refresh it in 
your minds. 

As long ago as 1851, 'the War Department and Navy De- 
partment concurred in placing the forces of the United States, 
near Boston, at the command of the Marshal, if needed, for the 
enforcement of an act of Congress, which had no support in 
the public conscience, as I believe it has no support in the con- 
stitution ; and thus these forces were degraded to the loathsome 
work of slave-hunters. More than three years afterwards, an 
occasion arose for their intervention. A fugitive from Virginia, 
who for some days had trod the streets of Boston as a freeman, 
was seized as a slave. The whole community was aroused, 
while Bunker Hill and Faneuil Hall quaked with responsive in- 
dignation. Then, sir, the President, anxious that no tittle of 
Slavery should suffer, was curiously eager in the enforcement 
of the statute. The despatches between him and his agents in 
Boston attest his zeal. Here are some of them : 

" Boston, May 27, 1854. 
" To THE President of the United States : 

" In consequence of an attack upon the Court-house, last night for tho 
purpose of rescuing a fugitive slave, under arrest, and in which one of 
my own guards was killed, / have availed myself of the resources of the 
United States, placed under my control by letter from the War and Na'iy 
Department, in 1851, and now have two companies of Troops, from Fort 
Independence, stationed in the Court-house. Everything is now qu et. 
The attack was repulsed by my own guard. 

" Watson Freeman, 
" United States Marshal, Boston, Mass.^' 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 47 

" Washington, May 27, 1854. 
*' To Watson Freeman, 

United States Marshal, Boston, Mass. : 
" Your conduct is approved. The law must be executed. 

" Franklin Pierce," 
" Washington, May 30, 1854. 
" To Hon. B. F. IIallet, Boston, Mais. : 
" What is the state of the case of Burns? 

" Sidney Webster." 
[^Private Secretary of the President .] 

" Washington, May 31, 1854 
" To B. F. Hallet, 

United States Attorney, Boston Mass. 
" Incur any expense deemed necessary by the Marshal and yourself, for 
City Military, or otherwise, to insure the execution of the law. 

" Franklin Pierce." 

But the President was not content with such forces as were 
then on hand in the neighborhood. Other posts also were put 
under requisition. Two companies of National troops, stationed 
at New York, were kept under arms, ready at any moment to 
proceed to Boston ; and the Adjutant General of the Army was 
directed to repair to the scene, there to superintend the execu- 
tion of the statute. All this was done for the sake of Slavery ; 
but during long months of menace suspended over the Free 
Soil of Kansas, breaking forth in successive invasions, the 
President has folded his hands in complete listlessness, or, if 
he has moved at all, it has been only to encourage the robber 
propagandists. 

And now the intelligence of the country is insulted by the 
Apology, that the President had no power to interfere. Why, 
sir, to make this confession is to confess our Government to be 
a practical failure — which I will never do, except, indeed, as 
it is administered now. No, sir ; the imbecility of the Chief 
Magistrate shall not be charged upon our American Institutions. 
Where there is a will, there is a way ; and in his case, had the 
will existed, there would have been a way, easy and triumphant, 



4H SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

to guard against the Crime we now deplore. His powers were 
in every respect ample ; and this I will prove by the statute- 
book. By the act of Congress of 28th February, 1795, it is 
enacted, " that whenever the laws of the United States shall 
be opposed, or the ^execution thereof obstructed^ in any State, 
by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary 
course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the 
marshals," the President " may call forth the militia." By 
the supplementary act of 3d March, 1807, in all cases where 
he is authorized to call forth the militia " for the purpose of 
causing the laws to be duly executed," the President is further 
empowered, in any State or Territory^ " to employ for the same 
purposes such part of the land or naval force of the United 
States as shall be judged necessary." There is the letter of 
the law ; and you will please to mark the power conferred. In 
no caseVhere the laics of the United States are opposed, or 
their execution obstructed, is the President constrained to wait 
for the requisition of a Governor, or even the petition of a citi- 
zen. Just so soon as he learns the fact, no matter by what 
channel, he is invested by law with full power to counteract it. 
True it is, that when the laivs of a State are obstructed, he 
can interfere only on the application of the Legislature of such 
State, or of the Executive, when the Legislature cannot be con- 
vened ; but when the Federal laws are obstructed, no such pre- 
liminary application is necessary. It is his high duty, under 
his oath of office, to see that they are executed, and, if need 
be, by the Federal forces. 

And, sir, this is the precise exigency that has arisen in 
Kansas, — precisely this, nor more, nor less. The act of Con- 
gress, constituting the very organic law of the Territory, which, 
in peculiar phrase, as if to avoid ambiguity, declares, as " its 
true intent and meaning," that the people thereof " shall be 
left perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institu- 
tions in their own way," has been from the beginning opposed 
and obstructed in its execution. If the President had power 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 49 

to employ the Federal forces in Boston, when he supposed the 
Fu'J-itive Slave Bill was obstructed, and merely in anticipation of 
such obstruction, it is absurd to say that he had not power in 
Kansas, Avhen, in the face of the whole country, the very or- 
(j ni'ic law of the Territory was trampled under foot by successive 
invasions, and the freedom of the people there overthrown. To 
assert ignorance of this obstruction — premeditated, long-con- 
tinued, and stretching through months — attributes to him not 
merely imbecility, but idiocy. And thus do I dispose of this 
Apology. 

Next comes the Apology absurd^ which is, indeed, in the na- 
ture of a pretext. It is alleged that a small printed pamphlet, 
containing the " Constitution and Ritual of the Grand Encamp- 
ment and Regiments of the Kansas Legion," was taken from 
the person of one George F. Warren, wdio attempted to avoid 
detection by chewing it. The oaths and grandiose titles of the 
pretended Legion have all been set forth, and this poor mum- 
mery of a secret society, which existed only on paper, has been 
gravely introduced on this floor, in order to extenuate the 
Crime against Kansas. It has been paraded in more than one 
speech, and even stuffed into the report of the committee. 

A part of the obligations assumed by the members of this 
Legion shows why it has been thus pursued, and also attests its 
innocence. It is as follows : 

" I will never knowingly propose a person for membership in this or- 
der who is not in favor of making Kansas a free State, and whom I feel 
satisfied will exert his entire influence to bring about this result. I will 
support, maintain, and abide by, any honorable movement made by the 
organization to secure this great end, which luill not conflict with the laws 
of the country and the constitution of the United States.''^ 

Kansas is to be made a free State, by an honorable movement, 
which will not conflict with the laws and the constitution. 
That is the object of the organization, declared in the very 
words of the initiatory obligation. Where is the wrong in this ? 



50 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

What is there here which can cast reproach, or even suspicion, 
upon the people of Kansas ? Grant that the Legion was con- 
stituted, can you extract from it any Apology for the original 
Crime, or for its present ratification ? Secret societies, with 
their extravagant oaths, are justly offensive ; but who can find, 
in this mistaken machinery, any excuse for the denial of all 
rights to the people of Kansas ? All this I say on the suppo- 
sition that the society was a reality — which it was not. Exist- 
ing in the fantastic brains of a few persons only, it never had 
any practical life. It was never organized. The whole tale, 
with the mode of obtaining the copy of the constitution, is at 
once a cock-and-bull story and a mare's nest ; trivial as the 
former, absurd as the latter; and to be dismissed, with the 
Apology founded upon it, to the derision which triviality and 
absurdity justly receive. 

It only remains, under this head, that I should speak of the 
Apology infamous ; founded on false testimony against the 
Emigrant Aid Company, and assumptions of duty more false 
than the testimony. Defying Truth and mocking Decency, 
this Apology excels all others in futility and audacity, while, 
from its utter hollowness, it proves the utter impotence of the 
conspirators to defend their Crime. Falsehood, always infa- 
moiis^ in this case arouses peculiar scorn. -An association of 
sincere benevolence, faithful to the constitution and laws, 
whose only fortifications are hotels, school-houses, and churches ; 
whose only weapons are saw-mills, tools, and books ; whose mis- 
sion is peace and good-will, has been falsely assailed on this 
floor, and an errand of blameless virtue has been made the pre- 
text for an unpardonable Crime. Nay, more — the innocent 
are sacrificed, and the guilty set at liberty. They who 
seek to do the mission of the Saviour are scourged and cruci- 
fied, while the murderer, Barabbas, with the sympathy of the 
chief priests, goes at large. 

Were I. to take counsel of my own feelings, I should dismiss 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 51 

this whole Apology to the ineffable contempt which it deserves ; 
but it has been made to play such a part in this conspiracy, 
that I feel it a duty to expose it completely. 

Sir, from the earliest times, men have recognized the advan- 
tao-es of organization, as an effective agency in promoting works 
of peace or war. Especially at this moment, there is no inter- 
est, public or private, high or low, of charity or trade, of 
luxury or convenience, which does not seek its aid. Men 
or<Tanize to rear churches and to sell thread ; to build schools 
and to sail ships ; to construct roads and to manufacture toys ; 
to spin cotton and to print books ; to weave cloths and to 
quicken harvests ; to provide food and to distribute light ; to in- 
fluence Public Opinion and to secure votes ; to guard infancy in 
its weakness, old age in its decrepitude, and womanhood in its 
wretchedness ; and now, in all large towns, when death has come, 
they are buried by organized societies, and, emigrants to another 
world, they lie down in pleasant places, adorned by organized 
skill. To complain that this prevailing principle has been applied 
to living emigration, is to complain of Providence and the irre- 
sistible tendencies implanted in man. 

But this application of the principle is no recent invention, 
biought forth for an existing emergency. It has the best stamp 
of antiquity. It showed itself in the brightest days of Greece, 
where colonists moved in organized bands. It became a part 
of the mature policy of Rome, where bodies of men were con- 
stituted expressly for this purpose, triumviri ad colonos dedu- 
cendos. — (Livy, xxxvii., § 46.) Naturally it has been 
accepted in modern times by every civilized State. With the 
sanction of Spain, an association of Genoese merchants first 
introduced slaves to this continent. With the sanction of 
France, the Society of Jesuits stretched their labors over Can- 
ada and the Great Lakes to the Mississippi. It was under the 
auspices of Emigrant Aid Companies that our country was 
originally settled, by the Pilgrim Fathers of Plymouth, by the 
adventurers of Vii'ginia, and by the philanthropic Oglethorpe, 



52 SPEECH OF HOX. CHARLES SUMNER. 

■whose '' benevolence of soul," commemorated bj Pope, sought 
to plant a Free State in Georgia. At this day, such associa- 
tions, of .a humbler character, are found in Europe, ^vith offices 
in the great capitals, through -whose activity emigrants are 
directed here. 

For a long time, emigration to the West, from the Northern 
and Middle States, but particularly from New England, has 
been of marked significance. In quest of better homes, annu- 
ally it has pressed to the unsettled lands, in numbei's to be 
counted by tens of thousands ; but this has been done hereto- 
fore vrith little knowledge, and -without guide or counsel. 
Finally, when, by the establishment of a Government in Kan- 
sas, the tempting fields of that central region were opened to 
the competition of peaceful colonization, and especially when it 
was declared that the question of Freedom or Slavery there 
was to be determined by the votes of actual settlers, then at 
once was organization enlisted as an effective agency in quick- 
ening and conducting the emigration impelled thither, and, 
more than all, in providing homes for it on arrival there. 

The Company was first constituted under an act of the Leg- 
islature oF Massachusetts. 4th of May, 1854, some weeks 
prior to the passage of the Nebraska Bill. The original act of 
incorporation was subsequently abandoned, and a new charter 
received in February, 1855, in which the objects of the Society 
are thus declared : 

'' For the purposes of directing emigration "Westward, and aicVinrj in 
providing accommodations for the emigrants after arriving at their 'places 
oj destination.'^ 

At any other moment, an association for these purposes w^ould 
have taken its place, by general consent, among the philan- 
thropic experiments of the age ; but crime is always suspicious, 
and shakes, like a sick man, merely at the pointing of a finger. 
The conspirators against freedom in Kansas now shook with 
tremor, real or affected. Their wicked plot was about to fail 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 53 

To help themselves, thej denounced the Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany ; and their denunciations, after finding an echo in the 
President, have been repeated, with much particularity, on this 
floor, in the formal report of your committee. 

The falsehood of the whole accusation will appear in illus- 
trative specimens. 

A charter is set out. section by section, which, though 
originally granted, was subsequently abandoned, and is not in 
reality the charter of the Company, but is materially unlike it. 

The Company is represented as " a powerful corporation, with 
a capital of five millions;" when, by its actual charter, it is 
not allowed to hold property above one million, and in point of 
fact its capital has not exceeded one hundred thousand dollars. 

Then, again, it is suggested, if not alleged, that this enor- 
mous capital, which I have already said does not exist, is invested 
in " camion and rifles, in powder and lead, and implements of 
war," — all of which, whether alleged or suggested, is abso- 
lutely false. The officers of the Company authorize me to give 
to this whole pretension a point-blank denial. 

All these allegations are of small importance, and I mention 
them only because they show the character of the report, and 
also something of the quicksand on which the senator from 
Illinois has chosen to plant himself. But these are all capped 
by the unblushing assertion that the proceedings of the Company 
were "in perversion of the plain provisions of an act of Con- 
gress;" and also another unblushing assertion, as "certain* 
and undeniable," that the Company was formed to promote cer- 
tain objects, " regardless of the rights and wishes of the people, 
as guaranteed by the constitution of the United States, and 
secured by their organic law ; " when it is certain and undeni- 
able that the Company has done nothing in perversion of any 
act of Congress, while, to the extent of its power, it has sought 
to protect the rights and wishes of the actual people in the 
Territory. 

Sir, this Company has violated in no respect the constitution 
5* 



54 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

or laws of the land : not in the severest letter or tlie slightest 
spirit. But every other imputation is equally baseless. It is 
not true, as the senator from Illinois has alleo;ed, in order in 
some way to compromise the Company, that it was informed 
before the public of the date fixed for the election of the Legis- 
lature. This statement is pronounced by the Secretary, in a 
letter now before me, " an unqualified falsehood, not having 
even the shadow of a shade of truth for its basis." It is not 
true that men have been hired by the Company to go to Kansas ; 
for every emigrant, who has gone under its direction, has him- 
self provided the means for his journey. Of course, sir, it is 
not true, as has been complained by the senator from South 
Carolina, with that proclivity to error which marks all his 
utterances, that men have been sent by the Company " with one 
uniform gun, Sharpe's rifle; " for it has supplied no arms of 
any kind to anybody. It is not true that the Company has 
encouraged any fanatical aggression upon the people of 
Missouri ; for it has counselled order, peace, forbearance. It 
is not true that the Company has chosen its emigrants on 
account of their political opinions ; for it has asked no questions 
■with regard to the opinions of any whom it aids, and at this 
moment stands ready to forward those from the South as well 
as the North, while, in the Territory, all, from whatever 
quarter, are admitted to an equal enjoyment of its tempting 
advantages. It is not true that the Company has sent persons 
merely to control elections, and not to remain in the Territory ; 
for its whole action, and all its anticipation of pecuniary profits, 
are founded on the hope to stock the country with permanent 
settlers, by whose labor the capital of the Company shall be 
made to yield its increase, and by whose fixed interest in the 
soil the welfare of all shall be promoted. 

Sir, it has not the honor of being an Abolition society, or of 
numbering among its officers Abolitionists. Its President is a 
retired citizen, of ample means and charitable life, who has 
taken no part in the conflicts on Slavery, and has never allowed 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 55 

dis sympathies to be felt by Abolitionists. One of its Vice- 
Presidents is a gentleman from Virginia, with family and 
friends there, who has always opposed the Abolitionists. Its 
generous Treasurer, who is now justly absorbed by the objects 
of the Company, has always been understood as ranging with 
his extensive connections, by blood and marriage, on the side 
of that quietism which submits to all the tyranny of the Slave 
Power. Its Directors are more conspicuous for wealth and 
science than for any activity against Slavery. Among these is 
an eminent lawyer of Massachusetts, Mr. Chapman, — person- 
ally known, doubtless, to some who hear me, — who has distin- 
guished himself by an austere conservatism, too natural to the 
atmosphere of courts, which does not flinch even from the sup- 
port of the Fugitive Slave Bill. In a recent address at a pub- 
lic meeting in Springfield, this gentleman thus speaks for him- 
self and his associates : 

" I have been a Director of tlie Society from the first, and have kept 
mjself well informed in regard to its proceedings. I am not aware that 
any one in this community eA^er suspected me of being an Abolitionist ; 
but I have been accused of being Pro-Slavery ; and I believe many good 
people think I am quite too conservative on that subject. I take this 
occasion to say that all the plans and proceedings of the Society have 
met my approbation ; and I assert that it has never done a single act 
with which any political party, or the people of any section of the coun- 
tr}^ can justly find fault. The name of its President, Mr. Brown, of 
Providence, and of its Treasvirer, Mr. Lawrence, of Boston, arc a suf- 
ficient guaranty, in the estimation of intelligent men, against its being"" 
engaged in any fanatical enterprise. Its stockholders are composed of 
men of all political parties, except Abolitionists. I am not aware that 
it has received the patronage of that class of our fellow-citizens, and I 
am informed' that some of them disapprove of its proceedings." 

The acts of the Company have been such as might be 
expected from auspices thus severely careful at all points. 
The secret throuo-h which, with small means, it has been able 
to accomplish so much, is, that, as an inducement to emigra- 
tion^ it has gone forward and planted capital in advance of 



56 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

population. According to the old immethodical system, this 
rule is reversed, and populatioa has been left to grope blindly, 
without the advantage of fixed centres, with mills, schools, and 
churches, — all calculated to soften the hardships of pioneer 
life, — such as have been established beforehand in Kansas. 
Here, sir, is the secret of the Emigrant Aid Company. By 
this single principle, which is now practically applied for the 
first time in history, and which has the simplicity of genius, a 
business association at a distance, without a large capital, has 
become a beneficent instrument of civilization, exercisinor the 
functions of various societies, and in itself being a Missionary 
Society, a Bible Society, a Tract Society, an Education Society, 
md a Society for the Diffusion of the Mechanic Arts. I would 
QOt claim too much for this Company ; but I doubt if, at this 
moment, there is any society which is so completely philan- 
thropic ; and since its leading idea, like the light of a candle, from 
which other candles are lighted without number, may be applied 
■ndefinitely, it promises to be an important aid to Human 
Progress. The lesson it teaches cannot be forgotten ; and here- 
ifter, wherever unsettled lands exist, intelligent capital will 
lead the way, anticipating the wants of the pioneer, — nay, 
ioing the very work of the original pioneer, — while, amidst 
f^ell-arranged harmonies, a new community will arise, to 
become, by its example, a more eloquent preacher than any 
solitary missionary. In subordination to this essential idea is 
(ts humbler machinery for the aid of emigrants on their way, 
by combining parties, so that friends and neighboi'S might 
journey together; by purchasing tickets at wholesale, and fur- 
nishing them to individuals at the actual cost : by providing for 
each party a conductor familiar with the road, and, through 
these simple means, promoting the economy, safety, and comfort, 
of the expedition. The number of emigrants it has directly 
aided, even thus slightly, in their journey, has been infinitely 
exaggerated. From the beginning of its operations down to the 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 5T 

close of the last autumn, all its detacliments from Massachusetts 
contained only thirteen hundred and twelve persons. 

Such is the simple tale of the Emigrant Aid Company. 
Sir. not even suspicion can justly touch it. But it must be 
made a scapegoat. This is the decree which has gone forth. I 
Avas hardly surprised at this outrage, when it proceeded from 
the President, for, like Macbeth, he is stepped so far in, that 
returning were as tedious as go on ; but I did not expect it 
from the senator from Missouri [Mr. Geyer], Avhom I had 
learned to respect for the general moderation of his views, and 
the name he has won in an honorable profession. Listening to 
him, I was saddened by the spectacle of the extent to which 
Slavery will sway a candid mind to do injustice. Had any 
other interest been in question, that senator would have scorned 
to join in impeachment of such an association. His instincts as 
a lawyer, as a man of honor, and as a senator, would have for- 
bidden ; but the Slave Power, in enforcing its behests, allows no 
hesitation, and the senator surrendered. 

In this vindication, I content myself with a statement of 
facts, rather than an argument. It might be urged that Mis- 
souri had organized a propagandist emigration long before any 
from Massachusetts ; and you might be reminded of the wolf in 
the fable, which complained of the lamb for disturbing the wa- 
ters, when in fact the alleged offender was lower down on the 
stream. It might be urged, also, that South Carolina has \ 
lately entered upon a similar system, while one of her chief- 
tains, in« rallying recruits, has unconsciously attested to the 
cause in which he w^as engaged, by exclaiming, in the words of 
Satan, addressed to his wicked force, " Awake ! arise ! or be 
forever fallen ! " ^ But the occasion needs no such defences. 
I put them aside. Not on the example of Missouri, or the ex- 
ample of South Carolina, but on inherent rights, which no man, 

* Mr. E^TANS, of South Carolina, here interrupted Mr. Sumner to say 
that he did not know of any such address. Mr. Sumner replied that it 
was taken from Southern papers. 



58 SPEECH OF HO^. CHARLES SUMNER. 

i\-hether senator or President, can justly assail, do I plant this 
inrpregnable justification. It will not do, in specious phrases, to 
allege the right of every State to be free in its domestic policy from 
foreign interference, and then to assume such wrongful interfer- 
ence by this Company. By the law and constitution we stand or 
fall ; and that law and constitution we have in no respect offended. 
To cloak the overthrow of all law in Kansas, an assumption 
is now set up, which utterly denies one of the plainest rights 
of the people everywhere. Sir, I beg senators to understand 
that this is a Government of laws ; and that, under these laws, 
the people have an incontestable right to settle any portion of 
our broad territory, and, if they choose, to propagate any opinions 
there not openly forbidden by the laws. If this were not so, 
pray, sir, by what title is the senator from Illinois, who is an 
emigrant from Vermont, propagating his disastrous opinions in 
another State ? Surely he has no monopoly of this right. 
Others may do what he is doing; nor can the right be in any 
w^ay restrained. It is as broad as the people ; and it matters not 
whether they go in numbers small or great, with assistance or 
without assistance, under the auspices of societies or not under 
such auspices. If this were not so, then, by what title are so 
many foreigners annually naturalized, under Democratic aus- 
pices, in order to secure their votes for misnamed Democratic 
principles ? And if capital as well as combination cannot be 
employed, by what title do venerable associations exist, of am- 
pler means and longer duration than any Emigrant Aid Com- 
pany, around which cluster the regard and confidence of the coun- 
try ? — the Tract Society, a powerful corporation, which scatters 
its publications freely in every corner of the land ; the Bible So- 
ciety, an incorporated body, with large resources, wdiich seeks 
to carry the Book of Life alike into Territories and States ; 
the Missionary Society, also an incorporated body, with large 
resources, wl.ich sends its agents everywhere, at home and in 
foreign lands, — By what title do all these exist? Nay, sir, 
by what title Iocs an Insurance Company in New York send 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 69 

its accent to open an office in New Orleans, and by wliat title 
does Massachusetts capital contribute to the Hannibal and St. 
Joseph Railroad in Missouri, and also to the copper mines of 
Michi'T-an ? The senator inveighs against the Native American 
party ; but his own principle is narrower than any attributed 
to them. They object to the influence of emigrants from 
abroad ; he objects to the influence of American citizens at home 
when exerted in States or Territories where they were not 
born ! The whole assumption is too audacious for respectful 
argument. But, since a great right has been denied, the chil- 
dren of the Free States, over whose cradles has shone the North 
Star, owe it to themselves, to their ancestors, and to Freedom 
itself, that this right should now be asserted to the fullest ex- 
tent. By the blessing of G'od, and under the continued pro- 
tection of the laws, they will go to Kansas, there to plant their 
homes, in the hope of elevating this Territory soon into the 
sisterhood of Free States ; and to such end they will not hesi- 
tate, in the employment of all legitimate means, whether by 
companies of men or contributions of money, to swell a virtuous 
emigration, and they will justly scout any attempt to question 
this unquestionable right. Sir, if they failed to do this, they 
would be fit only for slaves themselves. 

God be praised ! Massachusetts, honored Commonwealth 
that gives me the privilege to plead for Kansas on this floor, 
kno\YS her rights, and will maintain them firmly to the end. 
This is not the first time in history that her public acts have 
been arraigned, and that her public men have been exposed to 
contumely. Thus was it when, in the olden time, she began 
the great battle whose fruits you all enjoy. But never yet has 
she occupied a position so lofty as at this hour. By the intel- 
ligence of her population — by the resources of her industry — 
by her commerce, cleaving every wave — by her manufactures, 
various as human skill — by her institutions of education, vari- 
ous as human knowledge — by her institutions of benevolence, 
various as human suflering — by the pages of her scholars and 



60 SPEECH OF HON. CHAELES SUMNER. 

historians — bj the voices of her poets and orators, she is ncjw 
exerting an influence more subtle and commanding than ever 
before — shooting her far-darting rajs -wherever ignorance, 
wretchedness, or -wrong, prevail, and flashing light even upon 
those who travel far to persecute her. Such is Masstichusetts ; 
and I am proud to believe that you may as -v\ell attempt, 
■with puny arm, to topple down the earth-rooted, heaven-kissing 
granite which crowns the historic sod of Bunker Hill, as to 
change her fixed resolves for Freedom everywhere, and espe- 
cially now for Freedom in Kansas. I exult, too, that in this 
battle, which surpasses far, in moral grandeur, the whole war 
of the Revolution, she is able to j^reserve her just eminence. To 
the fiist she contributed a larger number of troops than any 
other State in the Union, and larger than all the Slave States 
together ; and now to the second, which is not of contending 
armies, but of contending opinions, on whose issue hangs trem- 
bling the advancing civilization of the country, she contributes, 
through the manifold and endless intellectual activity of her 
children, more of that divine spark by which opinions are quick- 
ened into life, than is contributed by any other State, or by all 
the Slave States together ; while her annual productive industry 
excels in value three times the whole vaunted cotton crop of the 
whole South. 

Sir, to men on earth itbelonoi;s onlv to deserve success — not 
to secure it : and I know not how soon the efforts of Massa- 
chusetts will wear the crown of triumph. But it cannot be 
that she acts wrong for herself or children, when in this cause 
she thus encounters reproach. No : by the generous souls who 
were exposed at Lexington ; by those who stood arrayed at 
Bunker Hill ; by the many from her bosom who, on all the 
fields of the first great struggle, lent their vigorous arms to the 
cause of all ; by the children she has borne, wdiose names alone 
are national trophies, is Massachusetts now vowed irrevocably 
to this work. What belongs to the faithful servant she w^ill do 
in all things, and Providence shall determine the result. 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 61 

And here ends what I have to say of the four Apologies for 
the Crime against Kansas. 

III. From this ample survey, where one obstruction after 
another has been removed, I now pass, in the third place, to 
the consideration of the various remedies proposed^ ending 
with the True Remedy. 

The Remedy should be coextensive with the original Wrong ; . 
and since, by the passage of the Nebraska Bill, not only Kansas, 
but also Nebraska, Minnesota, Washington," and even Oregon, 
have been opened to Slavery, the original Prohibition should be 
restored to its complete activity throughout these various Terri- 
tories. By such a happy restoration, made i-n good faith, the 
whole country would be replaced in the condition which it 
enjoyed before the introduction of that dishonest measure. 
Here is the Alpha and the Omega of our aim in this immediate 
controversy. But no such extensive measure is now in ques- 
tion. The Crime against Kansas has been special, and all else is 
absorbed in the special remedies for it. Of these I shall now 
speak. 

As the Apologies were four-fold, so are the Remedies pro- 
posed four-fold ; and they range themselves in natural order, 
under designations which so truly disclose their character as 
even to supersede argument. First, we have the Remedy of 
Tyranny ; next, the Remedy of Folly ; next, the Remedy of 
Injustice and Civil War : and fourthly, the Remedy of Justice 
and Peace. There are the four caskets ; and you are to deter- 
mine which shall be opened by senatorial votes. 

There is the Remedy of Tyranny, which, like its comple- 
ment, the Apology of Tyranny, though espoused on this floor 
especially by the senator from Illinois, proceeds from the 
President, and is embodied in a special message. It proposes 
to enforce obedience to the existing laws of Kansas, " whether 
6 



62 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

Federal or local^^^ -when, in fact, Kansas has no " local" lawa 
except those imposed bj the Usurpation from Missouri ; and it 
calls for additional appropriations to complete this work of 
tyranny. 

I shall not follow the President in his elaborate endeavor to 
prejudge the contested election now pending in the House of 
Representatives ; for this whole matter belongs to the privileges 
of that body, and neither the President nor the Senate has a 
right to intermeddle therewith. I do not touch it. But now, 
while dismissing it, I should not pardon myself if I failed to 
add, that any person who founds his claim to a seat in" Congress 
on the pretended votes of hirelings from another State, with no 
home on the soil of Kansas, plays the part of Anacharsis Clootz, 
who, at the bar of the French Convention, undertook to repre- 
sent nations that knew him not, or, if they knew him, scorned 
him ; with this difference, that in our American case the 
excessive farce of the transaction cannot cover its tragedy. But 
all this I put aside, to deal only with what is legitimately 
before the Senate. 

I expose simply the Tyranny which upholds the existing 
Usurpation, and asks for additional appropriations. Let it be 
judged by an example, from which in this country there can be 
no appeal. Here is the speech of George III., made from the 
Tl.rone to Parliament, in response to the complaints of the 
Province of Massachusetts Bay, which, though smarting under 
laws passed by usurped power, had yet avoided all armed 
opposition, while Lexington and Bunker Hill still slumbered 
in rural solitude, unconscious of the historic kindred which they 
were soon to claim. Instead of Massachusetts Bay, in the 
Royal speech, substitute Kansas, and the message of the Presi- 
dent will be found fresh on the lips of the British King. Listen 
now^ to the words, which, in opening Parliament, 30th Novem- 
ber, 1774, his Majesty, according to the official report, was 
pleased to speak : 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 63 

' ' My Lords and Gentlemen : 

" It gives me much concern that T am obliged, at the opening- of this 
Parliament, to inform you that a most daring spirit of resistance and 
disobedience to the law still unhappily prevails in the Province of the 
Massachusetts Bay, and has in divers parts of it broke forth in fresh 
violences of a very criminal nature. These proceedings have been counte- 
nanced in other of my Colonies, and unwarrantable attempts have been 
made to obstruct the Commerce of this Kingdom, by unlawful combinations. 
I have taken such measures, and given such orders, as I have judo-ed 
most proper and eifectual for carrying into execution the laws ivhich were 
passed in the last session of the late Parliament for the protection and 
security of the Commerce of my subjects, and for the restoring and pre- 
serving peace, order, and good government, in the Province of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay.'''' — American Archives, 4th series, vol. 1, page 14G5. 

The King complained of a ''daring spirit of resistance and 
disobcdier;ce to the law;" so also does the President. The 
King adds that it has " broke forth in fresh violences of a very 
criminal nature:" so also does the President. The Kin^ 
declares that these proceedings have been " countenanced and 
encouraged in other of my Colonies ; " even so the President 
declares that Kansas has found sympathy in " remote States." 
The King inveighs against ''unwarrantable measures" and 
"unlawful combinations;" even so inveighs the President. 
The King proclaims that he has taken the necessary steps " for 
carrying into execution the laws," passed in defiance of the 
constitutional rights of the Colonies ; even so the President 
proclaims that he shall " exert the whole power of the Federal 
Executive " to support the Usurpation in Kansas. The parallel 
is complete. The message, if not copied from the speech of 
the King, has been fashioned on the same original block, and 
must be dismissed to the same limbo. I dismiss its tyrannical 
assumptions in favor of the Usurpation. I dismiss also its 
petition for additional appropriations in the affected desire to 
maintain order in Kansas. It is not money or troops that you 
need there, but simply the good-will of the President. That 
is all, absolutely. Let his complicity with the Crime cease, 



64 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

and pea 3e will be restored. For myself, I will not consent to 
wad the National artillery with fresh appropriation bills, when 
its murderous hail is to be directed against the constitutional 
rights of my fellow-citizens. 

Next comes the Remedy of Folly ^ which, indeed, is also a 
Remedy of Tyranny ; but its Folly is so surpassing as to eclipse 
even its Tyranny. It does not proceed from the President. 
With this proposition he is not in any way chargeable. It 
comes from the senator from South' Carolina, wdio, at the close 
of a long speech, oifered it as his single contribution to the 
adjustment of this question, and who thus far stands alone in 
its support. It might, therefore, fitly bear his name ; but that 
which I now give to it is a more suggestive synonym. 

This proposition, nakedly expressed, is that the people of 
Kansas should be deprived of their arms. That I may not do 
the least injustice to the senator, I quote his precise words : 

*' The President of the United States is under the highest and most 
solemn obligations to interpose ; and, if I were to indicate the manner 
in which he should interpose in Kansas, I would point out the old com- 
mon law process ; I would serve a warrant on Sharpe's rifles, and if 
Sharpe's rifles did not answer the summons, and come into court on a 
day certain, or if they resisted the sheriff, I would summon the fo$.se 
comitatus, and would have Colonel Sumner's regiment to be a part of 
that posse comitatus.''^ 

Really, sir, has it come to this ? The rifle has ever been the 
companion of the pioneer, and, under God, his tutelary pro- 
tector afrainst the red man and the beast of the forest. Never 
was this efficient weapon more needed in just self-defence than 
now in Kansas, and at least one article in our National Consti- 
tution must be blotted out, before the complete right to it can 
in any way be impeached. And yet, such is the madness of the 
Ir^ur, that, in defiance of the solemn guaranty, embodied in the 
Amendments of the Constitution, that "the right of the people 
to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed," the people of 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 65 

Kansas have been arraigned for keeping and bearing them, and 
the senator from South Carolina has had the face to say openly, 
on this floor, that they should be disarmed — of course, that 
the fanatics of Slavery, his allies and constituents, may meet 
no impediment. Sir, the senator is venerable with years ; he 
is reputed also to have worn at home, in the State which he 
represents, judicial honors ; and he is placed here at the head 
of an important committee occupied particularly with questions 
of law ; but neither his years, nor his position, past or present, 
can give respectability to the demand he has made, or save him 
from indignant condemnation, when, to compass the wretched 
purposes of a wretched cause, he thus proposes to trample on 
one of the plainest provisions of constitutional liberty. 

Next comes the Remedy of Injustice and Civil Wa?^ — 
organized by Act of Congress. This proposition, which is also 
an offshoot of the original Remedy of Tyranny, proceeds from 
the senator from Illinois [Mr. DouGLAS], with the sanction of 
the Committee on Territories, and is embodied in the Bill which 
is now pressed to a vote. 

By this Bill it is proposed as follows : 

" That whenever it shall appear, by a census to be taken under the 
direction of the Governor, by the authority of the Legislature, that there 
shall be 93,420 inhabitants (that being the number required by the pres- 
ent ratio of representation for a member of Congress) within the limits 
hereafter described as the Territory of Kansas, the Legislature of said 
Territory shall be, arid is hereby, authorized to provide by law for the elec- 
tion of delegates, hy the people of said Territory, to assemble in Conven- 
tion, and form a Constitution and State Government, preparatory to 
their admission into the Union on an equal footing with the original 
States in all respects whatsoever, by the name of the State of Kansas." 

Now, sir, consider these words carefully, and you will see 
that, however plausible and velvet-pawed they may seem, yet, in 
reality, they are most unjust and cruel. Wbile affecting to 
initiate honest proceedings for the formation of a State, they 
furnish to this Territory no redress for the Crime under which 
6* 



6Q SPEECH OF HOX. CHARLES SUMNER. 

it suffe 3 ; nay, thej recognize the very Usurpation, in which 
the Crime ended, and proceed to endow it with new prerog- 
atives. It is by the mithority of tlie Lerjislahire that the 
census is to be taken, which is the first step in the work. It is 
also by the mithority of the Legislature that a Convention is 
to be called for the formation of a Constitution, which is the 
second step. But the Legislature is not obliged to take either 
of tliese steps. To its absolute wilfulness is it left to act or not 
to act in the premises. And since, in the ordinary course of 
business, there can be no action of the Legislature till January 
of the next year, all these steps, which are preliminary in their 
character, are postponed till after that distant day — thus 
keeping this great question open, to distract and irritate the 
country. Clearly this is not what is required. The country 
desires peace at once, and is determined to have it. But this 
objection is slight by the side of the glaring Tyranny, that, in 
recognizing the Legislature, and conferring upon it these new 
powders, the Bill recognizes the existing Usurpation, not only as 
tlie authentic Government of the Territory for the time being, 
but also as possessing a creative power to reproduce itself in the 
new State. Pass this Bill, and you enlist Congress in the con- 
spiracy, not only to keep the people of Kansas in their present 
subjugation, throughout their Territorial existence, but also to 
protract this subjugation into their existence as a State, while 
you legalize and perpetuate the very force by which Slavery has 
been already planted there. 

I know that there is another deceptive clause, which seems to 
throw certain safeguards around the election of delegates to 
the Convention, v:hen that Convention shall be ordered by the 
Legislature ; but out of this very clause do I draw a condem- 
nation of the Usurpation which the Bill recognizes. It provides 
that the tests, coupled with the electoral franchise, shall not 
prevail in the election of delegates, and thus impliedly con- 
demns them. But, if they are not to prevail on this occasion, 
why are they permitted at the election of the LcL^ishiture ? If 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 67 

they are unjust in the one case, they are unjust in the other. 
If annulled at the election of delegates, they should be annulled 
at the election of the Legislature ; lohereas tJie Bill of the 
senator leaves all these offensive tests in full activity at the 
election of the very Legislature oat of ivhich this ivhole 
"proceeding is to come^ and it leaves the polls at both elections 
in the control of the officers appointed by the Usurpation. Con- 
sider well the facts. By an existing statute, establishing the 
Fugitive Slave Bill as a shibboleth, a large portion of the honest 
citizens are excluded from voting for the Legislature, Avhile, by 
another statute, all who present themselves with a fee of one 
dollar, whether from Missouri or not, and who can utter this 
shibboleth, are entitled to vote. And it is a Legislature thus 
chosen, under the auspices of officers appointed by the Usurpa- 
tion, that you wovr propose to invest with parental powers to 
rear the Territory into a State. You recognize and confirm the 
Usurpation, which you ought to annul without delay. You put 
the infant State, now preparing to take a place in our sister- 
hood, to suckle with the wolf, which you ought at once to kill. 
The improbable story of Baron Munchausen is verified. The 
bear, which thrust itself into the harness of the horse it had 
devoured, and then whirled the sledge accordino; to mere brutal 
bent, is recognized by this Bill, and kept in its usurped place, 
when the safety of all requires that it should be shot. 

In characterizing this Bill as the Bemedy of Injustice and 
Civil War, I give it a plain, self-evident title. It is a contin- 
uation of the Crime against Kansas, and, as such, deserves the 
same condemnation. It can only be defended by those who 
defend the Crime. Sir, you cannot expect that the people of 
Kansas will submit to the usurpation which this Bill sets up, 
and bids them bow before — as the Austrian tyrant set up his 
cap in the Swiss market-place. If you madly persevere, Kan- 
sas will not be without V.er William Tell, who will refuse at all 
hazards to n -cognize the tyrannical edict; and this will be the 
beginning of 3ivil war. 



68 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUiMNEK. 

Next, and lastly, comes the Remedy of Justice andPeace^ 
proposed by the senator from New York [Mr. Seayard], and 
embodied in his Bill for the immediate admission of Kansas as 
a State of this Union, now pending as a substitute for the Bill 
of the senator from Illinois. This is sustained by the prayer 
of the people of the Territory, setting forth a constitution 
formed by a spontaneous movement, in which all there had 
opportunity to participate, without distinction of party. Rar. ly 
h;is any proposition, so simj)le in character, so entirely practica- 
ble, so absolutely within your power, been presente<l, which 
promised at once such beneficent results. In its adoption, the 
Crime against Kansas will be all happily absolved, the Usurpa- 
tion which it established will be peacefully suppressed, and order 
will be permanently secured. By a joyful metamorphosis, this 
fair Territory may be saved from outrage. 

" 0, help," she cries, " in this extremest need, 
If you who hear are Deities indeed ! 
Gape, earth, and make for this dread foe a tomb, 
Or change my form, ic hence all my sorrows come ! " 

In offering this proposition, the senator from New York has 
entitled himself to the gratitude of the country. He has, 
throughout a life of unsurpassed industry, and of eminent 
ability, done much for Freedom, Avhich the world will not let 
die ; but he has done nothing more opportune than this, and he 
has uttered no words more effective than the speech, so masterly 
and ingenious, by which he has vindicated it. 

Kansas now presents herself for admission with a constitution 
republican in form. And, independent of ^he great necessity 
of the case, three considerations of fact concur in commend- 
ing her. First. She thus testifies her willingness to relieve the 
Federal Government of the considerable pecuniary responsibility 
to which it is now exposed on account of the pretended Terri- 
torial government. Secondly. She has, by her recent conduct, 
particularly in repelling the invasion at Wacherusa, evinced an 
ability to defend her Government. And, thirdly, by the pecu ■ 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLI3 SUMNER. 69 

niary credit which she now enjoys she shows an undouDted 
ability to support it. What now can stand in her way ? 

The power of Congress to admit Kansas at once is explicit. 
It is found in a single clause of the constitution, which, stand- 
ing by itself, without any qualification applicable to the present 
c-cise, and without doubtful words, requires no commentary. 
Here it is : 

' ' New States maj/ be admitted b j Congress into this Union ; but no 
new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other 
State, nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States or 
parts of States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States 
concerned, as well as of the Congress." 

New States may be admitted. Out of that little word mat/ 
comes the power, broadly and fully, — without any limitation 
founded on population or preliminary forms, — provided the 
State is not within the jurisdiction of another State, nor formed 
by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, with- 
out the consent of the Legislatures of the States. Kansas is not 
within the kgal jurisdiction of another State, although the laws 
of Missouri have been tyrannically extended over her ; nor is 
Kansas formed by the junction of two or more States ; and, 
therefore, Kansas fnai/ be admitted by Congress into the 
Union, without regard to population or preliminary forms. 
You cannot deny the power, without obliterating this clause of 
the constitution. The senator from • New York was right in 
rejecting all appeal to precedents, as entirely irrelevant ; for 
the power invoked is clear and express in the constitution, 
which is above all pre :!edent. But, since precedent has been 
enlisted, let us look at precedent. 

It is objected that the population of Kansas is not sufficient 
for a State; and this objection is sustained by under-reckoning 
the numbers there, and exaggerating the numbers required by 
precedent. In the absence of any recent census, it is impos- 
sible to do more than approximate to the actual population : but, 
from careful inquiry of the best sources, I am led to place it 



70 SPEECH OF nOX. CHARLES SUMNER. 

now at fifty thousand, though I observe that a prudent 
authority, the Bostoti Daily Advertiser, puts it as high as 
sixty thousand, and, while I speak, this remarkable population, 
fed by fresh emigration, is outstripping even these calculations. 
Nor can there be a doubt that, before the assent of Con^^res'S 
can be perfected in the ordinary course of legislation, this pop- 
ulation will swell to the large number of ninety-three thousand 
four hundred and twenty, required in the Bill of the senator 
from Illinois. But, in making this numhtr the coiiditinn of 
the admission of Kansas, you set up an extraordinary 
standard. There is nothing out of which it can be derived, 
from the beginning to the end of the precedents. Going back 
to the days of the Continental Congress, you will find that, in 
1784, it was declared that twenty thousand freemen in a Ter- 
ritoiy might "establish a permanent Constitution and Govern- 
ment for themselves " {Journals of Congress, vol. 4, p. 379) ; 
and, though this number was afterwards, in the Ordinance of 
1787 for the North-western Territory, raised to sixty thousand, 
yet the power was left in Congress, and subsequently exercised 
in more tlian one instance, to constitute a State with a smaller 
number. Out of all the new States, only Maine, ^Yisconsin, and 
Texas, contained, at the time of their admission into the Union, 
so large a population as it is proposed to require in Kansas: 
while no less ihdin fourteen new States have been admitted with 
a smaller population ; as will appear in the following list, which 
is the result of research, showing the number of " free inhal- 
itants" in these States at the time of the proceedings which 
ended in their admission : 



Vermont 85,416 

Kentucky 61,103 

Tennessee 66,649 

Ohio 50,000 

Louisiana 41,890 

Indiana 60,000 



Illinois 45,000 

Missouri 56,586 

Arkansas 41,000 

Michigan 92,673 

Florida 27.091 

Iowa 81,921 



Mississippi 35,000 1 California .... 92,597 

Alabama 50,000 ' 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 71 

But tliis is not all. At the adoption of the Federal Consti- 
tution, there were three of the old thirteen States whose respect- 
iv^e populations did not reach the amount now required for 
Kansas. These were Delaware, with a population of 59,096 ; 
Rhode Island, with a population of 64,689 ; and Georgia, with 
a population of 82,548. And even now, while I speak, there 
are at least two States, with senators on this floor, which, ac- 
cording to the last census, do not contain the population now 
required of Kansas. I refer to Delaware, with a population of 
91.635, and Florida, with a population of freemen amounting 
only to 47,203. So much for precedents of population. 

But, in sustaining this objection, it is not uncommon to 
depart from the strict rule of numerical precedent, bj suggest- 
ing that the population required in a new State has always been, 
in point of fact, above the existing ratio of representation for a 
member of the House of Representatives. But this is not true ; 
for at least one State, Florida, was admitted with a population 
below this ratio, which at the time was 70,680. So much, 
again, for precedents. But, even if this coincidence were com- 
plete, it would be impossible to press it into a binding precedent. 

The rule seems reasonable, and, in ordinary cases, would not 
be questioned ; but it cannot be drawn or implied from the con- 
stitution. Besides, this ratio is, in itself, a sliding scale. At 
first it was 33,000 ; and this continued till 1811, when it was 
put at 35,000. In 1822, it was 40,000; in 1832, it was 
47,700; in 1842, it was 70,680; and now, it is 93,420. If 
any ratio is to be made the foundation of a binding rule, it 
should be that which prevailed at the adoption of the constitu- 
tion, and which still continued, when Kansas, as a part of 
Louisiana, was acquired from France, under solemn stipulation 
that it should ''be incorporated into the Union of the United 
States as soon as may be consistent with the principles of the 
Federal Constitution." But this whole objection is met by the 
memorial of the people of Florida, which, if good for that State, 
is also good for Kansas. Here is a passage : 



72 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

"But the people of Florida respectfully insist that their right to be 
admitted into the Federal Union as a State is not dependent upon the 
fact of their having a jDopulation equal to such ratio. Their right to 
admission, it is conceived, is guaranteed by the express pledge in the sixth 
article of the treaty before quoted ; and if any rule as to the number of 
the population is to govern, it should be that in existence at the time of 
the cession, which was thirty-five thousand. They submit, however, that 
any ratio of representation dependent upon legislative action, based 
solely on convenience and expediency, shifting and vacillating as the 
opinion of a majority of Congress may make it, now greater than at a 
previous apportionment, but which a future Congress may prescribe to 
be less, cannot be one of the constitutional ' principles ' referred to in 
the treaty, consistency with which, by its terms, is required. It is, in 
truth, but a mere regulation, not founded on principle. No specified 
number of population is required by any recognized principle as neces- 
sary in the establishment of a free Government. 

" It is in no wise ' inconsistent loith the principles of the Federal Con- 
stitution,'' that the population of a State should be less than the ratio of 
Congressional representation. The very case is provided for in the con- 
stitution. With such deficient population, she would be entitled to one 
Representative. If any event should cause a decrease of the population 
of one of the States even to a number below the minimum ratio of repre- 
sentation prescribed by the constitution, she would still remain a mem- 
ber of the Confederacy, and be entitled to such Representative. It is 
respectfully urged, that a rule or principle which would not justify the 
expulsion of a State with a deficient population, on the ground of incon- 
sistency with the constitution, should not exclude or prohibit admis- 
sion.'' — {Exec. Doc, 27th Cong., 2d sess., Yol. 4, No. 206.) 

Thus, sir, do the people of Florida plead for the people of 
Kansas. 

Distrusting the objection from inadequacy of population, it is 
said that the proceedings for the formation of a new State 
are fatally defective in form. It is not asserted that a pre- 
vious enabling act of Congress is indispensable ; for there are 
notorious precedents the other way, among which are Kentucky 
in 1791, Tennessee in 1796, Maine in 1820, and Arkansas 
and Michigan in 1836. But it is urged that in no instance has 
a State been admitted whose constitution was formed ANithout 
such enabling act, or without the authority of the Territorial 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 73 

Legislature. This is not true; for California came into the 
Union ^vitli a constitution, formed not only Avithout any pre- 
vious enabling act, but also without any sanction from a Terri- 
torial Legislature. The proceedings which ended in this con- 
stitution were initiated by the military Governor there, acting 
under the exigency of the hour. This instance may not be 
.'dentical in all respects with that of Kansas ; but it displaces 
completely one of the assumptions which Kansas now encoun- 
ters, and it also shows completely the disposition to relax all 
rule, under the exigency of the hour, in order to do substantial 
justice. 

But there is a memorable instance, which contains in itself 
every element of irregularity which you denounce in the pro- 
ceedings of Kansas. Michigan, now cherished with such pride 
as a sister State, achieved admission into the Union in persistent 
defiance of all rule. Do you ask for precedents ? Here is a 
precedent for the largest latitude, which you, who profess a 
deference to precedent, cannot disown. Mark now the stages 
of this case. The first proceedings of Michigan were without 
any previous enabling act of Congress ; and she presented her- 
self at your door w4th a constitution thus formed, and with 
senators chosen under that constitution, precisely as Kansas 
now. This was in December, 1835, while Andrew Jackson 
was President. By the leaders of the Democracy at that time, 
all objection for alleged defects of form was scouted, and lan- 
guage was employed which is strictly applicable to Kansas. 
There is nothing new under the sun ; and the' very objection of 
the President, that the application of Kansas proceeds from 
" persons acting against authorities duly constituted by act of 
Congress," w\as hurled against the application of Michigan, in 
debate on this floor, by Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana. This was 
his language : 

" But the people of Michigan, in presenting their Senate and House 
of Eeprescntatives as the legislative power existing there, shoived thai 
they had trampled upon and violated the laws of the United States establish" 

T 



74 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

inr/ a Territorial Government in Michigan. These laws "were, or ouglif 
to be, in full force there ; but, by the character and position assumed, 
they had set up a Government antagonist to that of the United States." 
— (^Congress. Deb., Yoh 12, p. 288, 2-ith Cong., \st session.) 

To this impeachment Mr. Benton replied in these effective 
words : 

" Conventions were original acts of the people. They depended upon 
inherent and inalienable rights. The people of any State may at any 
time meet in Convention, without a law of their Legislature, and with- 
out any provision or against any provision in their constitution, and 
may alter or abolish the whole frame of Government, as they please. 
The sovereign power to govern themselves was in the majority, and they 
could not be divested of it." — {Ibid., p. 1036.) 

Mr. Buchanan vied with Mr. Benton in vindicating the new 
State : 

" The precedent in the case of Tennessee has completely silenced all 
opposition in regard to the necessity of a pi'^vious act of Congress to 
enable the people of Michigan to form a State Constitution. It now 
seems to be conceded that our subsequent approbation is equivalent to 
our previous action. This can no longer be doubted. We have the un- 
questionable power of waiving any irregularities in the mode of framing ike 
constitution, had any such existed^ — {Ibid., p. 1041.) 

" He did hope that by this bill all objections would be removed ; and 
that this State, so ready to rush into our arms, would not be repulsed, 
because of the absence of some formalities which perhaps were very proper, 
hut certainly not indispensable.''^ — {Ibid., p. 1015.) 

After ^ animated contest in the Senate, the Bill for the ad- 
mission of MiclXgan, on her assent to certain conditions^ was 
passed, bj twentj-three yeas to eight nays. But you find 
weight, as well as numbers, on the side of the new State. 
Among the yeas were Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, James 
Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, Silas Wright, of New York, W. 
B. King, of Alabama. — (Co??^. Globe. Vol. 3d, p. 276, 1^^ 
session 24^A Cong.) Subsequently, on motion of Mr. Bu- 
chanan, the two gentlemen sent as senators by the new State 
received the regular compensation for attendance throughout 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 75 

the very session in which their seats had been so acrimoniously 
assailed. — {Ibid., p. 448.) 

In the House of Representatives the application was equally 
successful. The Committee on the Judiciary, in an elaborate 
report, revie^Yed the objections, and, among other things, said : 

" That the people of Michigan have without due authority formed a 
State GoTernment, but, nevertheless, that Conrjress has 'power to waive 
any objection which might, on that account, he entertained to the ratifica- 
tion of the constitution which they have adopted, and to admit their 
Senators and Representatives to take their seats in the Congress of the 
United States."— {Extc. Doc, 1st sess. 2\th Cong., Vol. 2, No. 380.) 

The House sustained this view by a vote of one hundred and 
fifty-three yeas to forty-five nays. In this large majority, by 
which the title of Michigan was then recognized, will be found 
the name of Franklin Pierce, at that time a Representative from 
New Hampshire. 

But the case was not ended. The fiercest trial and the 
greatest irregularity remained. The act providing for the 
admission of the new State contained a modification of its 
boundaries, and proceeded to require, as a fundamental con- 
dition^ that these should " receive the assent of a Convention of 
delegates, elected by the people of the said State, for the sole 
purpose of giving the assent herein required." — {Statutes at 
Large, Vol. 5, p. 50, Act of June bth, 1836.) Such a Con- 
vention, duly elected under a call from the Legislat^e, met in 
pursuance of law, and, after consideration, declined^ come into 
the Union on the condition proposed. But the action of this 
Convention was not universally satisfactory, and, in order to 
efiect an admission into the Union, another Convention was 
called professedly by the people, in their sovereign capacity, 
without any authority from State or Territorial Legislatuie; 
nay, sir, according to the language of the present President, 
"against authorities duly constituted by Act of Congress;" 
at least, as much as the recent Convention in Kansas. The 



76 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

irregulari y of this Convention TS'as increased by the circum- 
stance that two of the oldest counties of the State, comprisinor 
a population of some twenty -five thousand souls, refused to take 
any part in it, even to the extent of not opening the polls for 
the election of delegates, claiming that it was held without war- 
rant of law, and in defiance of the legal Convention. This 
popular Convention, though wanting a popular support coex- 
tensive with the State, yet proceeded, by formal act, to give 
the assent of the people of Michigan to the fundamental con- 
dition proposed by Congress. 

The proceedings of the two Conventions were transmitted to 
President Jackson, who, by message, dated 27th December, 
1836, laid them both before Congress, indicating very clearly 
his desire to ascertain the will of the people, -without regard to 
form. The origin of the popular Convention he thus describes : 

" This Convention was not held or elected by virtue of any act of the 
Territorial or State Legislature. It originated from the People them- 
selves, and was chosen by them in pursuance of resolutions adopted in 
primary assemblies held in the respective counties." — {Sen. Doc, 2d 
sess. 2-^th Conf)., Vol. 1, No. 36.) 

And he then declares that, had these proceedings come to him 
during the recess of Congress, he should have felt it his duty, 
on being satisfied that they emanated from a Convention of 
delegates elected in point of fact by the j)eo]ile of the ^iate^ 
to issue his proclamation for the admission of the State. 

The Committee on the Judiciary in the Senate, of which 
Felix Grundy was Chairman, after inquiry, recognized the 
competency of the popular Convention, as "elected by the 
people of th-e State of Michigan," and reported a Bill, respons- 
ive to their assent of the proposed condition, for the admission 
of the State without further condition. — {Staftftes at Large, 
Vol. 5, p. 144, Act of 2Qth Jan., 1837.) Then, sir, appeared 
the very objections which are now directed against Kansas. It 
was complained that the movement for immediate admission was 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 77 

the work o{ ''a i_jnoritj," and that "a great majority of the 
State feel otherwise." — {Se?i. Doc, 2d Sess. 2\tli Cong., 
Vol. 1. No. 37.) And a leading senator, of great ability and 
integrity, Mr. Ev/ing, of Ohio, broke forth in a catechism 
which would do for the present hour. He exclaimed : 

" T7hat eTidence had the Senate of the organization of the Conven- 
tion? of ihe organization of the popular assemblies wljo appointed 
theii delegates to that C -invention ? None on earth. Who the}' were 
that met and voted, wo had no information. Who gave the notice? 
And for what did the people receive the notice? To meet and elect? 
What evidence was there that the Convention acted according to law ? 
Were the delegates sworn? And if so, they were extra-judical oaths, 
and not binding upon them. Were the votes counted? In fact, it was 
not a proceeding under the forms of law, for they were totally disregard- 
ed."— (Co7iy. Globe, Vol. 4, p. 60, 2d sess. 2lthCong.) 

And the same able senator, on another occasion, after exposing 
the imperfect evidence with regard to the action of the Conven- 
tion, existing only in letters, and in an article from a Detroit 
newspaper, again exclaimed : 

" This, sir, is the evidence to support an organic law of a new State 
about to enter into the Union ! Yes, of an organic law, the very high- 
est act a community of men can perform. Letters referring to other 
letters, and a scrap of a newspaper." — Conrj. Debates, Vol. 13, Part I., 
p. 233. 

It was Mr. Calhoun, however, who pressed the opposition 
with the most persevering intensity. In his sight, the admis- 
sion of Michigan, under the circumstances, "would be the 
most monstrous proceeding under our constitution that can be 
conceived, the most repugnant to its principles, and dangerous 
in its consequences." — {^Cong. Debates, Vol. 13, p. 210.) 
"There is not," he exclaimed, "one particle of official evidence 
before us. We have nothing but the private letters of indi- 
viduals, who do not know even the numbers that voted on 
either occasion. They know nothing of the qualifications of 
voters, nor how their votes were received, nor by whom count- 
7* 



78 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

ed." — (Iff id.) And he proceeded to characterize the popular 
Convention as "not only a party caucus, for party purpose, 
but a crirainul meeting, — a meeting to subvert the authority 
of the State, and to assume its sovereignty;" adding "that 
the actors in that meeting might be indicted, tried, and pun- 
ished;" and he expressed astonishment that "a self-created 
meeting, convened for a criminal object, had dared to present 
to this Government an act of theirs, and to expect that we are 
to receive this irregular and criminal act as a fulfilment of the 
condition which we had presented for the admission of the 
State ! " — {Ibid., p. 299.) No stronger w^ords have been 
employed against Kansas. 

But the single question on which all the proceedings then 
hinged, and which is as pertinent in the case of Kansas as in 
the case of Michigan, w^as thus put by Mr. Morris, of Ohio 
{Ibid., p. 215) : " Will Congress recognize as valid, con- 
stitutional, and obligatory., ivithout the color of a law of 
Michigan to sustain it, an act done by tlie People of that 
State in their prima?y assemblies, and acknowledge that act 
as obligatory on the constituted authorities and Legislature 
of the State? " This question, thus distinctly presented, was 
answered in debate by able Senators, among whom were Mr. 
Benton and Mr. King. But there was one person, who has 
since enjoyed much public confidence, and has left many memo- 
rials of an industrious career in the Senate and in diplomatic 
life, James Buchanan, who rendered himself conspicuous by 
the ability and ardor with which, against all assaults, he upheld 
tho cause of the popular Convention, — which was so strongly 
denounced, — and the entire conformity of its proceedings with 
the genius of American Institutions. His speeches on that 
occasion contain an imanswerable argument, at all points, 
mutato 7iomine^ for the immediate admission of Kansas under 
her present constitution ; nor is there anything by whicli he 
is now distinguished that will redound so truly to his fame, if 
he only continues true to them. But the question w^as emphut- 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 79 

ical J answered in the Senate by the final vote on the passaf^e 
of the Bill, where we find twenty-five yeas to only ten nays. 
In the House of Representatives, after debate, the question was 
answered in the same way, by a vote of one hundred and forty- 
eiglit yeas to fifty-eight nays ; and among the yeas is again the 
name of Eeanklin Pierce, a Representative from New Hamp- 
shii-e. 

Thus, in that day, by such triumphant votes, did the cause 
of Kansas prevail in the name of Michigan. A popular Con- 
vention, called absolutely without authority, and containing 
delegates from a portion only of her population, — called, too, 
in opposition to constituted authorities, and in derogation of 
another Convention assembled under the forms of law, — stio-ma- 
tizcd as a caucus and a criminal meeting, whose authors were 
liable to indictment, trial, and punishment, — was, after ample 
debate, recognized by Congress as valid; and Michigan now 
holds her place in the Union, and her senators sit on this floor, 
by virtue of that act. Sir, if Michigan is legitimate, Kansas 
cannot be illegitimate. You bastardize Michigan when you 
refuse to recognize Kansas. 

Again, I say, do you require a precedent? I give it to you. 
But I will not stake this cause on any precedent. I plant it 
firmly on the fundatnental principle of American Institutions, 
as embodied in the Declaration of Independence, by which 
Government is recognized as deriving its just powers orAj from 
the consent of the governed^ who may alter or abolish it when 
it becomes destructive of their rights. In the debate on the 
Nebraska Bill,' at the overthrow of the Prohibition of Slavery, 
the Declaration of Independence was denounced as a '"'self- 
evident lie." It is only by a similar audacity thai the funda- 
mental principle which sustains the proceedings in Kansas can 
be assailed. Nay, more : you must disown the Declaration of 
Independence, and adopt the Circular of the Holy Alliance, 
which declares that ''useful and necessary changes in legisla- 
tion and ir. the administration of States ought only to emanate 



80 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

from the free will and the intelligent and well-weighed con- 
viction of those v'hom God has rendered responsible for 
power J'^ Face to face, I put the principle of the Declaration 
of Independence and the principle of the Holy Alliance, and 
bid them grapple ! " The one places the remedy in the hands 
which feel the disorder ; the other places the remedy in the 
•hands which cause the disorder; " and when I thus truthfully 
characterize them, I but adopt a sententious phrase from the 
Debates in the Virginia Convention on the adoption of the 
Federal Constitution. — (3 Elliot's Debates, 107 : Mr. Corbin.) 
And now these two principles, embodied in the rival proposi- 
tions of the senator from New York and the senator from 
Illinois, must grapple on this floor. 

Statesmen and judges, publicists and authors, with names 
of authority in American history, espouse and vindicate the 
American principle. Hand in hand, they now stand around 
Kansas, and feel this new State lean on them for support. Of 
these I content»myself with adducing two only, both from slave- 
holding Virginia, in days when Human Rights were not without 
support in that State. Listen to the language of St. George 
Tucker, the distinguished commentator upon Blackstone, uttered 
from the bench in a judicial opinion : 

" The power of convening the legal Assemblies, or the ordinary con- 
stitutional Legislature, resided solely in the Executive. Thej could 
neither be chosen without writs issued by its authority, nor assemljle, 
when chosen, but under the same authority. The Conventions, on the 
contrary, were chosen and assembled, either in pursuance. of recommend- 
ations from (congress, or from their own bodies, or by the discretion and 
"ommon consent of the people. They were held eren whilst a legal 
Assembly existed. Witness the Convention held at Richmond in March, 
1775, after which period the legal constitutional Assembly was convened 
in Williamsburg, by the Governor, Lord Dunmore. * * * Yet a consti- 
tutional dependence on the British Government was never denied until the 
succeeding May. * * The Convention, then, was not the ordinary Legis- 
lature of Virginia. It Avas the body of the people, impelled to assemble 
rom a sense of common danger, consulting for the common good, and 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 81 

acting in all things for the common safety." — 1 Virginia Cases, 70, 71, 
Kamper vs. Hawhins. 

Listen, also, to tae language of James Madison : 

" That in all great changes of established government, forms ought to 
g ■'e Avay to substance ; that a rigid adherence in such cases to the forms 
would render nominal and nugatory the transcendent and precious right 
of the people ' to abolish or alter their Government, as to them shall 
seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.' * * Nor can it 
have been forgotten that no little, ill-timed scruples, no zeal for adhering 
to ordinary forms, were anywhere seen, except in those who wished to 
indulge, under these masks, their secret enmity to the substance contended 
for:' — The Federalist, No. 40. 

Proceedings thus sustained I am unwilling to call revolu- 
tionary^ although this term has the sanction of the senator 
from New York. They are founded on an unquestionable 
American right, declared with Independence, confirmed by the 
blood of the fathers, and expounded by patriots, which cannot 
be impeached without impairing the liberties of all. On this 
head the language of Mr. Buchanan, in reply to Mr. Calhoun, 
is explicit : 

" Does the senator [Mr. Calhoun] contend, then, that if, in one of the 
States of this Union, the Government be so organized as to utterly 
destroy the right of equal representation, there is no mode of obtaining 
redress but by an act of the Legislature authorizing a Convention, or by 
open rebellion ? Must the people step at once from oppression to open 
war? Must it bo either absolute submission, or absolute revolution? 
Is there no middle course ? I cannot agree with the senator. I say that 
the whole history of our Government establishes the principle that the 
people are sovereign, and that a majority of them can alter or change 
their fundamental laws at pleasure. / deny that this is either rebellion or 
revolution. It is an essential and a recognized principle in all our forms 
of government :' — Congress. Deb., Vol. 13, p. 313, 24th Cong., 2d 
session. 

Surely, sir, if ever there was occasion for the exercise of 
this right, the time i^iad com« in Kansas. The people there had 



82 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

been subjugated by a horde of foreign invaders, and brought 
under a tyrannical code of revolting barbarity, ^vliile property 
and life among them were left exposed to audacious assaults 
which flaunted at noonday, and to reptile abuses which crawled 
in the darkness of night. Self-defence is the first law of 
nature; and unless this law is temporarily silenced, — as all 
other law has been silenced there, — you cannot condemn the 
proceedings in Kansas. Here, sir, is an unquestionaVde author- 
ity, in itself an ovenohebning law^ which belongs to all coun- 
tries and times ; which is the same in Kansas as at Athens and 
Home ; which is now, and will be hereafter, as it was in other 
days ; in presence of wliich Acts of Congress and Constitutions 
are powerless as the voice of man against the thunder which 
rolls through the sky ; which whispers itself coeval with life ; 
whose very breath is life itself ; and now, in the last resort, do 
I place all these proceedings under this supreme safeguard, 
which you will assail in vain. Any opposition must be founded 
on a fundamental perversion of facts, or a jDerversion of funda- 
mental principles, which no speeches can uphold, though sur- 
passing in numbers the nine hundred thousand piles driven into 
the mud in order to sustain the Dutch Stadt-house at Amster- 
dam ! 

Thus, on every ground of precedent, whether as regards pop- 
ulation or forms of proceeding ; also, on the vital principle of 
American Institutions ; and, lastly, on the absolute law of self- 
defence, do I now invoke the power of Congress to admit Kan- 
sas at once and without hesitation into the Union. '-New 
States may be admitted by the Congress into the Union ; " 
such are the words of the Constitution. If you hesitate for want 
of precedent, then do I appeal to the great principle of Ameri- 
can Institutions. If, forgetting the origin of the Republic, you 
turn away from this principle, then, in the name of human 
nature, trampled down and oppressed, but aroused to a just 
self-defence, do I plead for the exercise of this power. Do not 
hearken, I pray you, to the propositions of Tyranny and Folly ; 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 83 

do not be ensnared by that other proposition of the senator from 
Illinois [Mr. Douglas], in which is the horrid root of Injus- 
tice and Civil War. But apply gladly, and at once, the True 
Kemedy. wherein are Justice and Peace. 

# 

Mr. President, an immense space has been traversed, and I 
now stand at the goal. The argument in its various parts is 
here closed. The Crime against Kansas has been displayed in 
its origin and extent, beginning with the overthrow of the Pro- 
hibition of Slavery; next cropping out in conspiracy on the 
borders of Missouri ; then hardening into a continuity of out- . 
rage, through organized invasions and miscellaneous assaults, 
in which all security was destroyed, and ending at last in the 
perfect subjugation of a generous people to an unprecedented 
Usurpation. Turning aghast from the Crime, which, like 
murder, seemed to confess itself "with most miraculous organ,'"' 
we have looked with mingled shame and indignation upon the 
four Apologies, whether of Tyranny, Imbecihty, Absurdity, or 
Infamy, in which it has been wrapped, marking especially the 
false testimony, congenial with the original Crime, against the 
Emigrant Aid Company. Then were noted, in succession, 
the four Remedies, Avhether of Tyranny, Folly, Injustice and 
Civil War, or Justice and Peace ; which last bids Kansas, in 
conformity with past precedents and under the exigencies of the 
hour, in order to redeem her from Usurpation, to take a place 
as a sovereign State of the Union ; and this is the True Rem- 
edy. If in this argument I have not unworthily vindicated 
Truth, then have I spoken according to my desires ; if imper- 
fectly, then only according to my powers. But there are other 
things, not belonging to the argument, which still press for 
utterance. 

Sir, the people of Kansas, bone of your bone and flesh of 
jmr flesh, with the education of freemen and the rights of 
American citizens, now stand at your door. Will you send 



84 SPEECH OF HON. CHAELES SUMNER. 

them away, or bid them enter ? Will you push them back to 
renew their struggles with a deadly foe, or will you preserve 
them in security and peace ? Will you cast them again into 
the den of Tyranny, or will you help their despairing eflforts to 
escape? These questions I put with no common solicitude; 
for I feel that on their just determination depend all the most 
precious interests of the Republic ; and I perceive too clearly 
the prejudices in the way, and the accumulating bitterness 
against this distant people, now claiming their simple birth- 
right, while I am bowed with mortification, as I recognize the 
President of the United States, who should have been a staff to 
the weak and n shield to the innocent, at the head of this 
strange oppression. 

At every stage, the similitude between the wrongs of Kansas 
and those other wrongs against which our Fathers rose be- 
comes more apparent. Read the Declaration of Independence, 
and there is hardly an accusation which is there directed against 
the British Monarch, which may not now be directed with in- 
creased force against the American President. The parallel 
has a fearful particularity. Our Fathers complained that the 
king had "sent hither swarms of officers, to harass our people 
and eat out their substance;" that he "had combined with 
others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, 
giving his assent to their acts of ^pretended legislation ; " 
that " he had abdicated government here, by declaring us out 
of his protection, and ivaging war against us ; " that " he had 
excited domestic insurrection among us, and endeavored to 
bring on the inhabitants of our frontier the merciless sav- 
ages ; " that " our repeated petitions have been answered only by 
repeated injury." And this arraignment was aptly followed by 
the damning w^ords, that "a Prince, whose character is thus 
marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be 
the ruler of a free people." And surely, a President who has 
done all these things cannot be less unfit than a Prince. At 
every stage, the responsibility is brought directly to him. His 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 85 

offence has been both of commission and omission. He has 
done that which he ought not to have done, and he has left un- 
done that which he ought to have done. By his activity, the 
Prohibition of Slavery was overturned. By his failure to act, 
the honest emigrants in Kansas have been left a prey to wrong 
of all kinds. Nullum flag it iuni extitit^ nisi "per te ; nullum 
flagitium si?ie te. And now he stands forth the most conspicu- 
ous enemy of that unhappy Territory. 

As the tyranny of the British King is all renewed in the 
President, so on this floor have the old indignities been renewed 
which embittered and fomented the troubles of our Fathers. The 
early petition of the American Congress to Parliament, long be- 
fore any suggestion of Independence, was opposed — like the 
petitions of Kansas — 'because that body " was assembled with- 
out any requisition on the part of the Supreme Power." An- 
other petition from New York, presented by Edmund Burke, 
was flatly rejected, as claiming rights derogatory to Parliament. 
And still another petition from Massachusetts Bay was dismissed 
as '-vexatious and scandalous," while the patriot philosopher 
who bore it was exposed to peculiar contumely. Throughout 
the debates, our Fathers were made the butt of sorry jests and 
supercilious assumptions. And now these scenes, with these 
precise objections, have been renewed in the American Senate. 

With regret, I come again upon the senator from South Caro- 
lina [Mr. Butler], who, omnipresent in this debate, overflowed 
with rage at the simple suggestion that Kansas had applied for 
admission as a State ; and, with incoherent phrases, discharged 
the loose expectoration of his speech, now upon her representa- 
tive, and then upon her people. There was no extravagance of 
the ancient Parliamentary debate which he did not repeat ; nor 
was there any possible deviation from truth which he did not 
make, with so much of passion, I am glad to add, as to save 
him from the suspicion of intentional aberration. But the sena- 
tor touches nothing that he does not disfigure — with error, 
sometimes of principle, sometimes of fact. He shows an inca- 
8 



86 SPEECH OE HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

pacity of accuracy, -whether in stating the constitution or in 
stating the law, whether in the details of statistics or the diver- 
sions of scholarship. He cannot ope his mouth, but out there 
flies a blunder. Surely he ought to be familiar with the life of 
Franklin; and yet he referred to this household character, 
while acting as agent of our Fathers in England, a<3 above 
suspicion; and this was done that he might give point to a 
false contrast with the agent of Kansas, not knowing that, how- 
ever they may differ in genius and fame, in this experience they 
are alike : that Franklin, when intrusted with the petition of 
Massachusetts Bay, was assaulted by a foul-mouthed speaker, 
where he could not be heard in defence, and denounced as a 
" thief," even as the agent of Kansas has been assaulted on 
this floor, and denounced as a " forger." And let not the van- 
ity of the senator be inspired by the parallel with the British 
statesman of that day ; for it is only in hostility to Freedom that 
any parallel can be recognized. 

But it is against the people of Kansas that the sensibilities 
of the senator are particularly aroused. Coming, as he 
announces, "from a State," — ay, sir, from South Carolina, — 
he turns with lordly disgust from this newly-formed community, 
which he will not recognize even as " a body politic." Pray, 
sir, by what title does he indulge in this egotism ? Has he read 
the history of " the State" which he represents? He cannot 
surely have forgotten its shameful imbecility from Slavery, con- 
fessed throughout the Revolution, followed by its more shameful 
assumptions for Slavery since. He cannot have forgotten its 
wretched persistence in the slave-trade as the very apple of its 
eye, and the condition of its participation in the Union. He 
cannot have forgotten its constitution, which is republican only 
in name, confirming power in the hands of the few, and found- 
ing the qualifications of its legislators on " a settled freehold 
estate, or ten negroes." And yet the senator, to whom that 
" State" has in part committed the guardianship of its good 
name, instead of moving with back ward- treading steps, to cover 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 87 

its nakedness, rushes forward, in tlie very ecstasy of madness, 
to expose it, by provoking a comparison with Kansas. South 
Carolina is old ; Kansas is young. South Carolina counts by 
centuries, where Kansas counts by years. But a beneficent 
example may be born in a day ; and I venture to say, that 
against the two centuries of the older " State " may be already 
set the two years of trial, evolving corresponding virtue, in the 
younger community. In the one, is the long wail of Slavery ; 
.A the other, the hymns of Freedom. And if we glance at 
special achievements, it will be difficult to find anything in the 
history of South Carolina which presents so much of heroic 
spirit in an heroic cause as appears in that repulse of the Mis- 
souri invaders by the beleaguered town of Lawrence, where 
even the women gave their effective efforts to Freedom. The 
matrons of Rome, who poured their jewels into the treasury for 
the public defence ; the wives of Prussia, who, with delicate 
fingers, clothed their defenders against French invasion ; the 
mothers of our own Revolution, who sent forth their sons, cov- 
ered over with prayers and blessings, to combat for human 
rights, did nothing of self-sacrifice truer than did these women 
on this occasion. Were the whole history of South Carolina 
blotted out of existence, from its very beginning down to the 
day of the last election of the senator to his present seat on this 
floor, civilization might lose — I do not say how little ; but 
surely less than it has already gained by the example of Kan- 
sas, in its valiant struggle against oppression, and in the develop- 
ment of a new science of emigration. Already in Lawrence 
alone there are newspapers and schools, including a High School, 
and throughout this infant Territory there is more of mature 
scholarship, in proportion to its inhabitants, than in all South 
Carolina. Ah, sir, I tell the senator that Kansas, welcomed as 
a free State, will be a "ministering angel" to the Republic, 
when South Carolina, in the cloak of darkness which she hugs, 
" lies howling." 

The senator from Illinois [Mr. Douglas] naturally joins 



88 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

the senator from South Carolina in this warfare, and gives to it 
the superior intensity of his nature. He thinks that the 
National Government has not comiDletelj proved its power, as it 
has never hanged a traitor ; but, if the occasion requires, he 
hopes there will be no hesitation ; and this threat is directed at 
Kansas, and even at the friends of Kansas throughout the coun- 
try. Again occurs the parallel with the struggles of our Fath- 
ers ; and I borrow the language of Patrick Henry, when, to the 
cry from the senator of " treason," " treason," I reply, "If this 
be treason, make the most of it." Sir, it is easy to call names; 
but I beg to tell the senator that if the word "traitor " is in 
any way applicable to those who refuse submission to a tyran- 
nical Usurpation, whether in Kansas or elsewhere, then must 
some new word, of deeper color, be invented, to designate those 
mad spirits who would endanger and degrade the Republic, 
while they betray all the cherished sentiments of the Fathers, 
and the spirit of the constitution, in order to give new spread 
to Slavery. Let the senator proceed. It will not be the first 
time in history that a scaffold erected for punishment has become 
a pedestal of honor. Out of death comes life; and the "trai- 
tor," whom he blindly executes, will live immortal in the cause. 

" For Humanity sweeps onward; where to-day the martyr stands, 
On the morrow crouches Judas, with the silver in his hands ; 
While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return, 
To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn." 

Among these hostile senators, there is yet another, with all 
the prejudices of the senator from South Carolina, but without 
his generous impulses, who, on account of his character before 
the country, and the rancor of his opposition, deserves to be 
named. I mean the senator from Virginia [Mr. Mason], 
who, as the author of the Fugitive Slave Bill, has associated 
himself with a special act of inhumanity and tyranny. Of him 
I shall say little, for he has said little in this debate, though 
within that little was compressed the bitterness of a life absorbed 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 89 

in the support of Slavery. He holds the commission of Vir- 
ginia ; but he does not represent that early Virginia, so dear to 
our hearts, Avhich gave to us the pen of Jefferson, by -which the 
equality of men was declared, and the sword of Washington, by 
which Independence was secured ; but he represents that other 
Virginia, from which AYashington and Jefferson now avert their 
faces, where human beings are bred as cattle for the shambles, 
and where a dungeon rewards the pious matron who teaches 
little children to relieve their bondage by reading the Book of 
Life. It is proper that such a senator, representing such a 
State, should rail against Free Kansas. 

But this is not all. The precedent is still more clinching. 
Thus far I have followed exclusively the public documents laid 
before Congress, and illustrated by the debates of that body ; 
but well-authenticated facts, not of record here, make the case 
stronger still. It is sometimes said that the proceedings in 
Kansas are defective, because they originated in a party. This 
is not true ; but, even if it were true, then would they still find 
support in the example of Michigan, where all the proceedings, 
stretching through successive years, began and ended in party. 
The proposed State Government was pressed by the Democrats 
as a party test ; and all who did not embark in it were 
denounced. Of the Legislative Council, which called the first 
Constitutional Convention in 1835, all were Democrats; and in 
the Convention itself, composed of eighty-seven members, only 
seven were Whigs. The Convention of 1836, which gave the 
final assent, originated in a Democratic Convention on the 29th 
October, in the County of Wayne, composed of one hundred 
and twenty-four delegates, all Democrats, who proceeded to 
resolve — 

" That the delegates of the Democratic party of Wayne, solemnly im- 
pressed with the spreading evils and dangers which a refusal to go into 
the Union has brought upon the people of Michigan, earnestly recom- 
mend meetings to he immediately convened by their fellow-citizens in 
every County of the State, with a view to the expression of their senti- 



90 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

ments in favor of the election and call of another Corivention, in time to 
securii our admission into the Union before the first of January next." 

Shortly afterwards, a committee of five, appointed by this 
Convention, all leading Democrats, issued a circular, "under 
the authority of the delegates of the County of Wayne," recom- 
mending that the voters throughout Michigan should meet and 
elect delegates to a Convention to give the necessary assent to 
the act of Congress. In pursuance of this call, the Convention 
met; and, as it originated in an exclusively party recommenda- 
tion, so it was of an exclusively party character. And it was 
the action of this Convention that was submitted to Congress, 
and, after discussion in both bodies, on solemn votes, approved. 

But the precedent of Michigan has another feature, which is 
entitled to the gravest attention, especially at this moment, 
when citizens engaged in the effort to establish a State Govern- 
ment in Kansas are openly arrested on the charge of treason, and 
we are startled by tidings of the maddest efforts to press this pro- 
cedure of preposterous Tyranny. No such madness prevailed 
under Andrew Jackson ; although, during the long pendency of 
the Michigan proceedings, for more than fourteen months, the 
Territorial Governm-cnt was entirely ousted, and the State Gov- 
ernment organized in all its departments. One hundred and 
thirty different legislative acts were passed, providing for elec- 
tions, imposing taxes, erecting corporations, and establishing 
courts of justice, including a Supreme Court and a Court of 
Chancery. All process was issued in the name of the people of 
the State of Michigan. And yet no attempt was made to ques- 
tion the legal validity of these proceedings, whether legislative 
or judicial. Least of all did any menial Governor, dressed in 
a little brief authority, play the fantastic tricks which we now 
witness in Kansas ; nor did any person, w^earing the robes of 
justice, shock high Heaven with the mockery of injustice now 
enacted by emissaries of the President in that Territory. No, 
sir ; nothing of this kind then occurred. Andrew Jackson was 
President. 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 91 

Senators such as these are the natural enemies of Kansas ; 
and I introduce them with reluctance, simply that the country 
may understand the character of the hostility which must be 
overcome. Arrayed with them, of course, are nil who unite, 
under any pretext or apology, in the propagandism of Human 
Slavery. To such, indeed, the time-honored safeguards of pop- 
ular rights can be a name only, and nothing more. What are 
trial by jury, habeas corpus, the ballot-box, the right of peti- 
tion, the liberty of Kansas, your liberty, sir, or mine, to one 
wdio lends himself not merely to the support at home, but to 
the propagandism abroad, of that preposterous wrong, which 
denies even the right of a man to himself? Such a cause can 
be maintained only by a practical subversion of all rights. It 
is, therefore, merely according to reason that its partisans should 
uphold the Usurpation in Kansas.- 

To overthrow this Usurpation is now the special, importu- 
nate duty of Congress, admitting of no hesitation or postpone- 
ment. To this end, it must lift itself from the cabals of candi- 
dates, the machinations of party, and the low level of vulgar 
strife. It must turn from that Slave Oligarchy which now 
controls the Republic, and refuse to be its tool. Let its power 
be stretched forth towards this distant Territory, not to bind, 
but to unbind ; not for the oppression of the weak, but for the 
subversion of the tyrannical ; not for the prop and maintenance 
of a revolting Usurpation, but for the confirmation of Liberty. 

" These are imperial arts, and worthy thee ! " 

Let it now take its stand between the living and dead, and 
cause this plague to be stayed. All this it can do ; and if the 
interests of Slavery did not oppose, all this it would do at once, 
in reverent regard for justice, law, and order, driving far away 
all the alarms of war ; nor would it dare to brave the shame 
and punishment of this Great Refusal, But the Slave Power 
dares anything ; and it can be conquered only by the united 



92 SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

masses of the People. From Congress to the People, I 
appeal. 

Already Public Opinion gathers unwonted forces to scourge 
the aggressors. In the press, in daily conversation, wherever 
two or three are gathered together, there the indignant utter- 
ance finds vent. And trade, by unerring indications, attests 
the growing energy. Public credit in Missouri droops. The 
six per cents of that State, which at par should be one hundred 
and two, have sunk to eighty-four and one fourth — thus at 
once completing the evidence of Crime, and attesting its pun- 
ishment. Business is now turning from the Assassins and 
Thugs, that infest the Missouri River on the way to Kansas, to 
seek some safer avenue. And this, though not unimportant in 
itself, is typical of greater changes. The political credit of the 
men who uphold the Usurpation droops even more than the 
stocks ; and the People are turning from all those through 
whom the Assassins and Thuo;s have derived their disgraceful 
immunity. 

It was said of old, " Cursed be he that removeth his neigh- 
bor"s Landmark. A fid all the people shall say, A?nen.'^ — 
{Deut. 27 : 17.) Cursed, it is said, in the city, and in the 
field ; cursed in basket and store ; cursed when thou comest in, 
and cursed when thou goest out. These are terrible impreca- 
tions ; but, if ever any Landmark were sacred, it was that by 
which- an immense territory was guarded foi^ever against 
Slavery ; and if ever such imprecations could justly descend 
upon any one, they must descend now upon all who, not con- 
tent w4th the removal of this sacred Landmark, have since, 
with criminal complicity, fostered the incursions of the great 
Wrong against which it was intended to guard. But I utter 
no imprecations. These are not my words ; nor is it my part 
to add to or subtract from them. But, thanks be to God ! they 
find a response in the hearts of an aroused People, making them 
turn from every man, whether President, or Senator, or Repre- 
flentative, who has been engaged in this Crime, — especially 



SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 93 

from those who, cradled in free institutions, are without the 
apology of education or social prejudice, — until of all such 
those other words of the prophet shall be fulfilled — " I will 
set my face against that man, and make him a sign and a prov- 
erb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people." — • 
{Ezekiel 14 : 8.) Turning thus from the authors of this 
Crime, the People will unite once more with the Fathers of the 
Republic, in a just condemnation of Slavery, — determined 
especially that it shall find no home in the National Territories, 
— while the Slave Power, in which the Crime had its begin- 
ning, and by which it is now sustained, will be swept into the 
charnel-house of defunct Tyrannies. 

In this contest, Kansas bravely stands forth — the stripling 
leader, clad in the panoply of American institutions. In calmly 
meeting and adopting a frame of Government, her people have 
with intuitive promptitude performed the duties of Freemen ; 
and when I consider the difficulties by which she was beset, I 
find dignity in her attitude. In offering herself for admis- 
sion into the Union as a Free State, she presents a single 
issue for the People to decide. And since the Slavp Power 
now stakes on this issue all its ill-gotten supremacy, the Peo- 
ple, while vindicating Kansas, will at the same time overthrow 
this Tyranny. Thus does the contest which she now begins 
involve not only Liberty for herself, but for the whole country. 
God be praised, that she did not bend ignobly beneath the yoke ! 
Far away on the prairies, she is now battling for the Liberty 
of all, against the President, who misrepresents all. Every- 
where among those who are not insensible to Right the gener- 
ous struggle meets a generous response. From innumerable 
throbbing hearts go forth the very words of encouragement 
which, in the sorrowful days of our Fathers, were sent by 
Virginia, speaking by the pen of Richard Henry Lee, to 
Massachusetts, in the person of her popular tribune, Samuel 
Adams : 



94: SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 

" Chantilhj {Va.), June 2Sd, 1774. 
"I hope the good people of Boston will not lose their spirits under 
their present heavy oppression, for they will certainly be supported by 
the other Colonies ; and the cause for which they suffer is so glorious, and 
BO deeply interesting to the present and future generations, that all 
America will owe, in a great measure, their political salvation to the 
present virtue of Massachusetts Bay." — American Archives, 4th series, 
vol. 1, p. 446. 

In all this sympathy there is strength. But in the cause itself 
there is angelic power. Unseen of men, the great spirits of 
History combat by the side of the people of Kansas, breathing a 
divine courage. Above all towers the majestic form of Wash- 
ington, once more, as on the bloody field, bidding them to 
remember those rights of Human Nature for which the War of 
Independence was waged. Such a cause, thus sustained, is 
invincible. 

The contest, which, beginning in Kansas, has reached us, will 
soon be transferred to a broader stage, where every citizen will 
be not only spectator, but actor ; and to their judgment I con- 
fidently appeal. To the People, now on the eve of exercising 
the electoral franchise, in choosing a Chief Magistrate of the 
Republic, I appeal, to vindicate the electoral franchise in Kan- 
sas. Let the ballot-box of the Union, with multitudinous 
might, protect the ballot-box in that Territory. Let the voters 
everywhere, while rejoicing in their own rights, help to guard 
the equal rights of distant fellow-citizens ; that the shrines of 
popular institutions, now desecrated, may be sanctified anew ; 
that the ballot-box, now plundered, may be restored; and that 
the cry, " I am an American citizen," may not be sent forth in 
vain against outrage of every kind. In just regard for free 
labor in that Territory, which it is sought to blast by unwel- 
come association with slave labor ; in Christian sympathy with 
the slave, whom it is proposed to task and to sell there ; in 
stern condemnation of the Crime which has been consummated 
on that beautiful soil; in rescue of fellow-citizens, now subju- 



SPEECH OP HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 95 

gated to a tyrannical Usurpation; in dutiful respect for the 
earl J Fathers, whose aspirations are now ignobly thwarted; in 
the name of the Constitution, which has been outraged — of 'the 
Laws trampled down — of Justice banished — of Humanity de- 
graded—of Peace destroyed -of Freedom crushed to earth- 
and m the name of the Heavenly Father, whose service is per- 
fect Freedom, I make this last appeal. 



I c M N n 



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